WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill adage: Freshman senators should be seen and not heard. That idea has been in decline for a while, and it was definitely not part of the orientation packet for the big Republican class of 2015.
Less than six weeks into their new terms, the dozen newest Republican senators have made a mark, both in front of the cameras and behind closed doors.
Perhaps most notably, they have become reliable allies for GOP leaders. None show signs they want to be the prickly, renegade types so much in evidence in the last two classes. There appear to be no Ted Cruzes nor any Mike Lees.
Even Democrats are taking notice. “Several of them have emerged already in significant roles, and I’m sure that Mitch McConnell is going to encourage more to do the same,” said Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
The GOP freshmen, who swept into office in November’s wave election along with only one new Democrat, recently played a key part in the standoff between House and Senate Republicans over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, both members of the House last year, spoke at a closed-door meeting of their former House GOP colleagues in the Capitol basement in an effort to ease the tensions that have flared up.
“We didn’t come here to sit on the sidelines and watch the work get done,” Gardner said in an interview.
Six of the 12 new Republican senators came directly from the House. The DHS stalemate has elevated their profile because they have associations in the other chamber that their more senior colleagues do not.
The Republican freshmen who came from jobs outside Washington are also making a splash. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, once a little-known state senator who exploded onto the national radar with a viral ad campaign about castrating hogs last year, is a rising Republican star. She delivered the official GOP response to Obama’s State of the Union address.
Gardner also appears at ease under the spotlight. He cracked jokes at the annual Congressional Dinner this month, comfortably zinging his colleagues.
Gardner said the freshmen senators plan to participate soon in an NRSC fundraising effort. It was through training sessions at the NRSC, after all, that some of the new Republicans got to know each other.
