US Representative Brittany Pettersen gave birth to her son, Sam, on January 25. Since then she has brought him to Washington, DC, four times due to rules on proxy voting, which force her to travel in person to Capitol Hill if she wants her constituents to have a voice in Congress.
On Monday the Democratic congresswoman’s hard-fought campaign to change this archaic rule for herself and all other new parents serving in the House ended with a vote-pairing deal, voted through on Tuesday, that was far from what she and her bipartisan coalition of fellow lawmakers had hoped for. The process would essentially allow an absent member to “pair” their vote with a member who would take an opposite view, with a process in place to record the position of each member—however, while it allows the absent member’s position on a vote to be heard, they aren’t able to influence the outcome. This comes after the issue became a bitter fight in the House of Representatives, with the legislative body even adjourning last week during the conflict.
“It’s so very out of touch with women in America,” says Pettersen in an interview with Glamour. The proxy bill was so vital, she argues, because it was “addressing not just the needs in Congress, but also understanding what women are going through in the United States and the necessary changes needed for them.”
“It's not that I'm not working, it’s not that I’m not doing my job,” she continues. “It is about being physically unable to vote in person because of medical reasons.”
The rule change’s most vehement opponent was Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who fought it even though several of his fellow Republicans, including Representative Anna Paulina Luna, joined Pettersen and other Democrats in pushing for it (on social media Johnson claimed that he felt the provision would be “terribly abused” if enacted). Even President Donald Trump seemed to support the change, telling reporters that he didn’t see what was so “controversial” about it, according to Politico. By this week, though, Johnson had seemingly convinced Trump to change his mind, telling Politico that the president had told him, “Mike, you have my proxy on proxy voting.”
For Pettersen, the bitter fight to kill her rule change shows how far we still have to go to ensure that women, and young working parents in general, have a seat at the table.
Glamour spoke with Pettersen (and baby Sam) about traveling from her home in Colorado to Congress with a newborn, why this fight is about all working parents, and her plans to get it done in the future.
Glamour: We learned on Monday that a deal had been reached on the proxy voting issue, but it was a far cry from the rule change you proposed. Can you explain what was agreed on? What is vote pairing, exactly?
So, if you and I were in Congress together and I couldn’t be there, but I was a yes vote on a bill and you were a no vote, if you agreed to pair with me, then you would vote present instead of no, so that our votes canceled each other out and my absence wouldn’t have impacted the outcome.
Now, the reason why that doesn’t work and what I brought up on the [House] floor is…what Republican is going to vote present on my behalf this week if I were to leave? Of course there will be no Republican that will do that. We’re voting on the budget. We’re voting on bills that they see a priority, so they’re not going to be on record voting “present” instead of voting in support.
Right, with Congress as divided as it is, it will be a challenge to find a Republican who is willing to effectively throw their vote away on your behalf.
It brings a political liability if you’re on record voting “present” instead of voting for it or against it. It doesn’t guarantee that the absent lawmaker has a voice and that you’re represented under these narrow circumstances.
Representative Luna, a Republican, was a key ally for you in this fight. Why do you think ultimately she agreed to this deal, even though it wasn’t what you both had hoped?
She was working through her leadership, politics, and relationships, and trying to see what we could get…she unfairly was being blamed for the House adjourning when that was very much Speaker Johnson’s fault. And so there’s a point at which, just politically, how long could she take this fight on?
You gave birth 10 weeks ago and have now travelled to Washington, DC, to vote four times. What has this experience been like for you?
The job requires working nearly every day. I gave myself two weeks off before I started fully engaging again with my team, but our offices were open and supporting our constituents, and I was quickly back to work. The question is about the physical and medical limitations when you’re close to your due date, being unable to fly, and then while you’re recovering and also taking care of your newborn, who is the most vulnerable they’ll ever be in their life.
It’s about making sure that you’re not putting people in a dangerous position and that you’re not being forced to make the choice that I did about whether or not I was going to fly across the country for a critical vote where my constituents’ lives were on the line, and their health care and well-being. And then choosing between prioritizing the health of my newborn at home. So it was a terrible position to be in. I’m grateful that Sam’s okay. But it was very scary and upsetting.
What is a typical day like for you with an infant working on the Hill?
We can’t pay for our entire family to come across the country numerous times a month, and my older son, Davis, is also in school. So my husband was at home with Davis, and Sam came with me and I went by myself. It’s a lot to take on as an individual when you’re carrying all the things that babies need, taking care of him, making sure he’s okay, sitting through a long flight, trying to get home, get through transportation, trying to sleep at all at night.
The challenges with just even trying to take a shower, because you don’t have somebody to address the needs of your baby while you’re taking a shower. I would say it’s not even the airport and the airplane that’s the hardest. It’s sleep and getting ready.
Are you getting any sleep?
A little. Every day you get a little bit closer to inching your way to larger chunks of time where you're sleeping. Those are things that all parents understand and have been through. I think that the unique challenge of this job is the requirement to be in person to vote, which is such a critical piece of our job, and that’s why people across the United States were just shocked to learn that there are no accommodations and that people in my circumstance would be forced in that position to make that decision.
Your main adversary in the fight to change these rules has been Speaker Johnson. Do you have insight as to why he’s been so against it?
I feel like it’s fighting against the status quo. So much of the status quo is also rules and expectations and outdated laws that are reflective of women not having a seat at the table and not being in these positions of power. And his unwillingness to listen, to understand what these circumstances look like and why it’s so important that we address these barriers, is just a very outdated way of looking at the world and the way that we should do things here in Congress.
I mean, when these rules were written, neither you or I could even vote.
Yeah, let alone be in office.
You’re juggling a lot—from doing your job in Congress to traveling alone with a newborn and also being postpartum. How are you coping?
Sometimes I forget the questions that people are asking me or if I’ve already answered it. You’re showing up just so tired to everything, and all other parents going through having a new baby understand that. But that’s been a challenge.
I’m grateful that there’s been attention to this because even though we ultimately weren’t able to change the rule, we highlighted a very important issue that we need to deal with in Congress and something that resonates with so many parents. Especially women, who have come up to me saying that when they saw me speaking on the House floor with Sam, they couldn’t stop crying. It felt like somebody who understood the struggle that they went through when they had kids and trying to navigate having a baby and meeting the needs of your job and dealing with a workplace that’s unwilling to help you at all in these circumstances, and to have someone that’s like them fighting for them in Washington.
So I’ve been moved by the amount of people that I’ve heard from who really related to what I was going through, but also felt hopeful that there was someone that was going to change things.
What’s the future for proxy voting for parents? Is this something that you will readdress if the House majority changes parties in 2026 or 2028?
Oh, when we get the majority, we’re getting this done. When you think about how far we got, actually, we were only the fifth discharge position to pass in 25 years. So we made a lot of headway. We changed hearts and minds. We built a large coalition, and we brought awareness to this issue, and I’m proud of that.
How much longer will you be bringing Sam to DC?
Like so many people, it’s hard to find childcare and I’m on a wait list. We’re slotted in for the summer. Until then Sam is going to be coming with me to Washington until he has full-time daycare.
You aren’t alone in that issue, which I think speaks to your point of why it’s so important to have representatives who are actually living through these issues that young families face.
Those are the issues that people want us to focus on. Investing in that infrastructure and supporting those childcare deserts. These are the things that when you actually have a tax system that doesn't give tax breaks to the most wealthy people and create almost trillionaires like Elon Musk, when we actually take those dollars and invest back in the American people, it reduces costs with things like college and childcare and housing and health care. So we have a lot of work to do.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
