There’s a New Contender for Most Awful Woman in Congress

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) is exhibiting levels of shamelessness you'd expect from Reps. Greene, Boebert, and Mace.

By Susan Rinkunas | January 26, 2024 | 3:50pm

There’s a New Contender for Most Awful Woman in Congress

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R) of Florida. Photo:Shutterstock

Readers of this website are familiar with the exceedingly shameless gaggle of conservative women in Congress, all of whom are desperate for attention as they engage in a race to the bottom to harm people. You’re probably unfortunately well-versed in the antics of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). But I must inform you that another GOP representative is auditioning hard to turn this group into the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) is a former Obama supporter who was elected in 2022 on a MAGA platform. In November 2022, she allegedly lied about being raised Jewish in an effort to defend MTG after she made a series of antisemitic comments, like comparing President Joe Biden to Hitler and the covid vaccine and mask mandates to the Holocaust. Luna has gotten a lot more attention recently and none of it good.

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When Republicans took control of the House in January 2023, they ended the covid-era rules allowing members of Congress to vote by proxy, something Luna voted for. But after she had a complicated childbirth in August 2023, she was upset that she wasn’t allowed to vote remotely as she recovered. So last week, she introduced a milquetoast bill—a resolution, actually—that would allow proxy voting only for women who physically gave birth, not for people welcoming babies via adoption or surrogacy, and not for new fathers. Despite those flaws, 22 Democrats have signed on so far, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).

This is no feminist win. When she spoke to the New York Times about her proposal, she said it was necessary because the Republican House majority is so small that if a female Republican was pregnant, they might not be able to pass bills. In short, it’s about politics, not about helping new moms:

In the interview, she sidestepped a question about why postpartum mothers should get a reprieve from voting on the House floor in person when members dealing with medical conditions that prevent them from traveling, or men helping their wives recover from difficult births like the one she experienced, do not.

“I’m not tackling that issue,” she said. “Proxy voting has to be treated respectfully and delicately. Republicans could have a one-seat majority and we have a member that’s pregnant.”

This would all be bad enough, but then she made a homophobic dig at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, weaponized her new status as a mom, and then called to restart family separation.

A few days after the NYT interview, Luna attacked Buttigieg for getting parental leave when she didn’t and called it “maternity leave” for a “dude.” Federal employees can take paid parental leave thanks to a 2019 law but she wasn’t eligible because she hadn’t been a member of Congress for 12 months before the baby was born. (If she’s upset about that policy, she’s a literal member of Congress who can propose a change to the law.)

Buttigieg’s husband Chasten responded by noting that everyone deserves this time off, and called her comments homophobic.

In the middle of the press cycle about her resolution, and during a House oversight committee hearing, she called to re-start family separation for migrants seeking asylum because she thinks they’re not actually families, but rather people trafficking children. “The reason why we want family separation, until we can confirm if they are the actual biological parents, is because these kids are being trafficked,” Luna said. At a press conference later in the day, she weaponized her new status as a mother. “What I can tell you is I don’t make any apologies for that statement,” she said. “I would absolutely rather have my child confirmed that that’s my biological child if someone was claiming to be their parent.”

But wait, there’s more! She and her husband are suing the Pentagon over its previous covid vaccine mandate, which the Department of Defense later rescinded. Her husband, Andrew Gamberzky, resigned from the military after it denied him exemptions for “sincerely held religious beliefs” regarding embryonic stem cells used to develop and test the shots. He said in the suit that after being forced to resign, he and Luna lost military benefits, including healthcare. But Raw Story published a piece Monday noting that Gamberzky owns between $1,000 and $15,000 in stock in a company that develops medical treatments using—wait for it—human embryonic stem cells. Luna declined to comment to Raw Story in response to a question about the stocks in the context of the lawsuit.

But in a 2021 interview with One America News as a candidate, Luna said of embryonic stem cell research: “It’s not OK. It’s morally wrong.” Guess it’s fine if your spouse makes money off it though.

If the past two weeks are any indication, we’ll be hearing a lot of nonsense from Rep. Luna this year.