Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler this week received a compliment -- but not a campaign endorsement -- from a surprising source: A member of the Kennedy family.
Yes, the Kennedy family, the one from Massachusetts that produced a U.S. president, two U.S. senators and other notable Democrats.
U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., recently thanked Herrera Beutler for her legislation to promote research on maternal death.
"My colleague (Herrera Beutler) intro'd legislation that would support states in researching maternal deaths & identifying solutions for #MaternalJustice. Has 180+ bipartisan cosponsors in the House which is fantastic news. Needs more GOP support to cross finish line," Kennedy tweeted Monday.
However, Kennedy told Yahoo News he still endorses Herrera Beutler's Democratic challenger, Carolyn Long, to represent Southwest Washington's 3rd Congressional District. The two are locked in a general election battle that will be decided Tuesday.
"Congresswoman Herrera Beutler's support on this one bill, however, does not excuse her consistent votes to repeal the (Affordable Care Act) or her party's promise to take health care away from millions of Americans if they retain majorities in both chambers," Kennedy told Yahoo News. "That's why I'm proudly supporting Carolyn Long, who understands that health care is deeply personal and would never vote to jeopardize protections for preexisting conditions."
Kennedy's grandfather was Senator Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968, and his great uncles were President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy. This past January Joe Kennedy gave the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address. At 37, Kennedy may have been the youngest person to ever deliver such a rebuttal.
Herrera Beutler (R-Battle Ground) responded in a tweet, "As a mother and a lawmaker, I'll keep working with my Republican and Democrat colleagues to reverse the troubling trend of maternal mortality and save moms."
The Preventing Maternal Deaths Act is intended to eliminate disparities in pregnancy-related deaths and improve health outcomes for mothers.
Long said in a statement that the tweets are a political move to disguise Herrera Beutler's repeated votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
"Jaime Herrera Beutler has voted time and time again to allow insurance companies to discriminate against mothers, cancer survivors, and people living with debilitating diseases. If she was so concerned with bipartisan solutions to the healthcare crisis, Jaime has had no shortage of opportunities to exercise oversight over the Trump administration's sabotage of the individual marketplace where countless single moms working minimum wage jobs with no benefits purchase health insurance for their families. In fact, she's done just the opposite more than 40 times when she voted to repeal the ACA," Long said.
Herrera Beutler's spokeswoman shot back that Long was turning the exchange into a partisan attack.
"Despite being from different political parties, Jaime and Congressman Kennedy have worked together on multiple bipartisan solutions to improve care for low-income children and pregnant mothers. Jaime has always found it more effective to work across the aisle on legislation because rarely does one party have a monopoly on good ideas."
