From elevator-bound staffers to the highest leaders within the Home, nobody is underestimating 82-year-old Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).
After Foxx chaired a virtually 22-hour Home Guidelines Committee listening to forward of Home passage of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” in Might, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) referred to as her the “Iron Lady of the House.” Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) referred to as Foxx a “tough cookie” and a “straight shooter” in a press convention a number of weeks later.
Now in her eleventh time period in Congress, Foxx is undeniably one of the iconic figures within the Home Republican Convention — a stature achieved not by making waves by means of social media or bombastic stances, however by means of being a workhorse and a workforce participant.
“I am really, really focused on not wasting time,” Foxx mentioned in an interview with The Hill in June. “If you see me when I’m waiting for the train, you’ll see I go to the end of the platform so that I am on the first car, so when I get out, I’m as close as I can be to where I’m going.”
However whereas she is understood for her toughness, Foxx additionally has a tender facet — tearing up when speaking concerning the American Revolution’s “barefoot soldiers who were willing to risk their lives for freedom.” She’s poured her power by means of her decades-long profession into serving to folks by means of training, simply because it helped her stand up from poverty.
Fox on this Congress is the one Republican girl chairing a committee within the Home, chosen by the Speaker to guide the highly effective Guidelines panel after she led Republicans on the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce for 4 phrases.
Foxx, although, doesn’t see that statistic as proof of bias in opposition to girls within the GOP.
“I think a lot of the press tries to make it look like women are not respected in the Republican Party, but it’s really a matter of tenure,” she mentioned, including: “The fact that I’m the only woman just means that we haven’t had women stay as long as men stay or start earlier to be able to gain the seniority to become a chair. So it’s just a matter of timing, more than anything.”
Foxx’s private life story facilities on the transformative energy of training.
Born in New York Metropolis (Manhattan, to be precise — “Wikipedia has it wrong”), Foxx moved to North Carolina when she was six years outdated, dwelling in homes with out electrical energy or operating water. She had no plans to go to school till a trainer her senior yr inspired her to take action.
She attended Lees-McRae School in North Carolina for a semester; then went to dwell along with her grandparents within the Bronx whereas she labored as a typist close to Wall Road and saved her cash; after which went again to enroll at Appalachian State College. Foxx transferred and graduated from the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and went on to earn an training doctorate from UNC-Greensboro.
However Foxx stresses that benefiting from training is just not about amassing faculty levels, however about talent growth. She recalled her youthful brother worrying that his household could be ashamed of him for not eager to go to school. Foxx helped arrange a carpentry apprenticeship program for him to enter, and he finally acquired a license.
“We’ve set a standard for many people that says if you don’t have a college degree, you’re no good. And that bothers me a lot,” Foxx mentioned.
Foxx is as a lot of a workforce participant on the political facet of the Home GOP as she is inside the official facet. One of many cubicles within the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee from which members make fundraising calls has Foxx’s title on it, sources have informed The Hill through the years.
These workhorse sensibilities have lengthy been obvious: A profile of Foxx in The Hill 20 years in the past described Foxx’s persona as “half-grandmother, half-drill sergeant.”
Across the Capitol campus, Foxx is extensively identified for her status for scolding employees and others for hopping on a members-only elevator, or telling employees and reporters to get out of the way in which.
“I’m a rule follower. Ninety-five % of the time, I am in a rush, and most members are,” Foxx mentioned. “And so there’s a members’ elevator for a reason, and it really is for time management more than anything else.”
Her elevator status is so sturdy that different members have thanked her for the set up of recent members-only elevators updates in Home workplace buildings during the last yr — however Foxx mentioned the credit score for these new key-card activated elevators to Home Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), insisting she didn’t ask for the additions.
It isn’t simply elevators. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), one in every of Foxx’s associates in Congress, recalled one in every of his first impressions of her whereas ready on a bus to go to an occasion.
“This white-haired lady stood up and told the bus driver, ‘close the door and go,'” Westerman mentioned. “And the bus driver closed the door and left. And my wife and I were there, and my wife said, ‘You better watch out for her.'”
“There’s only one Virginia Foxx,” he added. “I think a lot of people see sometimes a rough exterior, but she’s got a huge heart inside.”
Foxx additionally made waves when she scolded a reporter in a press convention after Republicans nominated Johnson to be Speaker after a three-month saga following former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) removing in 2023. One of many first inquiries to Johnson involved his efforts supporting Trump’s “Stop the Steal” effort after the 2020 election.
Republicans booed — and Foxx, standing prominently subsequent to Johnson, shouted again: “Shut up! Shut up!”
Foxx informed The Hill she thought the questions ought to have centered on how the brand new Speaker nominee felt.
“We were in such a wonderful mood. We’d gone through a lot to get speaker Johnson elected, and the mood in the room was so happy, so happy. And for somebody to bring up something totally opposite of where we were at the moment was very frustrating,” Foxx mentioned. “The woman was clueless about the tone at the time.”
Foxx, who simply celebrated her 82nd birthday, is the fifteenth oldest lawmaker in all of Congress — and the tenth oldest consultant.
Age has develop into a significant political legal responsibility in recent times, significantly with former President Biden being pressured to drop out of the 2024 race as a result of issues about his psychological acuity and numerous different growing old lawmakers being scrutinized extra repeatedly.
Foxx is “quite aware” of the scrutiny positioned on older members, however sees herself as being on the peak of her profession and has no plans to step again. In Might, she introduced she is in search of reelection in 2026.
“I get letters from people saying you need to quit,” Foxx mentioned. “My response to that is the Speaker appointed me Chair of the Rules Committee. That’s sort of the peak of a career around here. And so I feel like I’m really in a good place. I don’t think anybody will say I have any cognitive decline.”
“I’m physically in good shape. I had a fall in January, but that was because of a slick step,” Foxx mentioned, referring to slipping on the marble steps outdoors the Home chamber. “I don’t have any problems with getting around and I feel great. I work out every day, I stretch and I do those kinds of things to keep in good shape.”
“I don’t see a reason to quit, as long as I can be the kind of representative my constituents deserve and want,” Foxx mentioned.
Final yr, Foxx went by means of the identical private hardships as a lot of her constituents when Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina — trapping her husband of their mountain residence.
Foxx informed her husband she deliberate to remain the evening in Winston-Salem as a result of coming hurricane and conferences within the space the following day, however he didn’t count on the storm to be that dangerous. However Foxx, not eager to take possibilities, crammed up jugs of water for him – preparedness that paid off after flooding washed away some driveway to her home, trapping him for a number of days.
“I’m glad in many ways that it happened to us, because we were experiencing the same things that my constituents were experiencing. So when people would call me, I knew exactly what they were dealing with,” Foxx mentioned.
