Cathy McMorris Rodgers, en la lista de vicepresidenciables republicanos

The Daily Caller:

Although largely unknown outside her district in eastern Washington state, Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers could be the next U.S. vice president.

First elected in 2004, McMorris Rodgers is now in her second term as vice chairman of the Republican Conference, which makes her the highest-ranking Republican woman on Capitol Hill. She has built a significant amount of behind-the-scenes clout, and has become one of her party’s most influential leaders on issues like international bailouts, earmark reform and the fight against Obamacare.

McMorris Rodgers also has the kind of compelling life story that political operatives always look for. The daughter of produce farmers who operated a fruit stand, she was the first member of her family to attend college. She earned her MBA from the University of Washington in 2002. By the age of 24, she was a member of the state House of Representatives.

Married to a retired U.S. Navy commander, McMorris Rodgers is also one of only eight women to have ever given birth while serving in Congress, and the only woman who has done it twice.

Her first child, Cole, was born a month premature and was diagnosed with Down syndrome. That experience led her to form a bipartisan Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus, which educates lawmakers about the disorder and aims to protect Americans who have it.

(...) Many big names have been floated for the Republicans’ vice presidential slot this year, but GOP candidates have tended more towards dark horse picks in recent decades — like Quayle, Palin and Dick Cheney. As a young conservative well known by the press if not the public, McMorris Rodgers is a contradiction: a familiar outsider, a seasoned political pro working just under the radar.

(...) Having a vice presidential nominee from a western state could also be an asset on a Republican ticket, [veteran Republican strategist Kellyanne] Conway argued.

“The West will be a battleground,” she said. “If you have somebody on the ticket from the western states, it might force Obama to spend more time out west when he’d really like to be in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and the Midwest.”

For now, though, McMorris Rodgers is staying coy about her vice presidential prospects.

“It’s hard for me to imagine the nominee would actually approach me, you know?” she told TheDC when asked whether she’d consider taking the job. “I think I’ll just leave it at that, and we’ll see where it goes.”

Un dato: apoya a Romney desde el año pasado.