Mrs. Rankin was the first woman elected to the US Congress via the House. Pretty amazing in a couple ways. Firstly, women didn’t get to vote in the majority of the States until the 19th Amendment (thank you School House Rock). Secondly, she won an at-large seat in Montana back when they had two spots in the House. Rankin being a Republican isn’t a surprise though. It has always been the party of WASPs and she was with the Progressive (aka Teddy Roosevelt) branch, Democrats could be Progressives too but there were Catholics and Jews amongst their ranks (they were considered inferior and not true Americans). Today, I think she would’ve run as an independent despite the Democrats being more open to issues she backed.
You can read all about Jeannette Rankin here. She was the original “she persisted” politician due to her opposition to entering both WWI and WWII. I could agree with the argument for staying out of WWI, WWII is trickier because Imperial Japan made a direct attack on our turf, people and gear.