WASHINGTON -- Before deciding if she'll vote for Donald Trump, Martha McSally said she'll spend time "determining what kind of man he is." Mia Love said some comments by the presumptive Republican presidential candidate need "some sort of explanation," while Renee Ellmers backs him because he's "a problem solver."
FULL ELECTION COVERAGE
McSally, Love and Ellmers are not women interviewed randomly on the street. They're Republican members of the House, among five female GOP House members facing competitive re-election races whose reactions highlight the hard choices Trump's statements are forcing on his own party.
Each of the five must confront a question with political and personal implications: Will you support your party's standard-bearer, knowing his history of comments about women that many consider offensive? Trump has called some women a "dog," a "fat pig" or "flat-chested," republished a tweet dubbing Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly a "bimbo" and accused Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton of using "the woman's card" to win votes.
"I think it puts all women in an awkward position," Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., a leader of the House GOP campaign committee, said of Trump's impact on female Republican lawmakers.
Trump is causing angst across the GOP.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has withheld his endorsement, citing questions about policy and party unity. Male congressional Republicans in difficult races and women in more secure seats are also distancing themselves.
But the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 Republicans -- Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the Republican Conference -- have all backed the New York businessman now, along with dozens of other members.
Ryan told reporters this week that his team and the Trump camp are continuing to meet and are making progress.
Ryan is "the representative of all members of the House. That means he has to be a bridge between Trump supporters and the never-Trump camp in his own caucus. That's not a tenable position," said Joshua Huder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Government Affairs Institute in Washington.
For the five GOP women fighting to preserve their House careers, rejecting Trump could alienate his energized supporters, jeopardizing needed votes. Embracing him risks support from women, Hispanics and others he's angered with comments and invite criticism for backing a man who has repeatedly insulted their own gender.
Most of the five GOP women in close races have been cautious when discussing Trump, instead emphasizing their focus on their district's needs.
"I don't want to talk about that," McSally said last week about Trump, saying she and her staff are "working our butts off" for her district around Tucson, Ariz. Her campaign provided a written statement saying she respects "the will of voters" but citing "concerns" about Trump's statements about women.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, representing a chunk of upstate New York, didn't agree to be interviewed.
Questioned about Trump, Rep. Barbara Comstock kept walking but said she has a record of "leading for women" in her Virginia district outside Washington, D.C.
In a telephone interview, Love, who represents Utah, said anyone's offensive comment "deserves some sort of explanation."
Ellmers is the outlier, openly endorsing Trump. She is locked in a June GOP primary in North Carolina against fellow incumbent Rep. George Holding and said Trump's remarks about women won't hurt her.
Also on Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said a deal between House leaders and President Barack Obama's administration to help Puerto Rico out of debt has colonialist overtones.
In a letter to fellow Senate Democrats on Monday, the senator from Vermont said the House bill to create a control board and allow some restructuring of the U.S. territory's $70 billion debt would make "a terrible situation even worse."
Sanders said the bill would empower an "unelected and undemocratic oversight board" and criticized the legislation for allowing the governor of Puerto Rico to cut the minimum wage temporarily for some younger workers.
Also on Monday, Clinton's campaign said she will not participate in a California debate against Sanders before that state's primary June 7.
The two campaigns had agreed to additional debates beyond the slate of events that had been scheduled by the Democratic National Committee. The Sanders campaign had hoped to schedule a final debate in California, and Fox News had agreed to host in San Francisco.
The Democratic Party on Monday announced an agreement that allowed Sanders to choose nearly as many members of the Democratic Party platform-writing body as Clinton, and Sanders immediately used his new power to name an advocate for Palestinian rights, James Zogby, to help draft Democratic policy.
Clinton has picked six members of the 15-member committee, and Sanders has named five, the Democrats said Monday ahead of an expected announcement by the Democratic National Committee.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram, Ken Thomas and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press; by Billy House of Bloomberg News; and by Abby Phillip, Anne Gearan and David Weigel of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/24/2016