WASHINGTON _ He had barely been in Congress four months, but already, Mike Gallagher was being discussed as presidential ticket material.
"The Republican ticket in 2020 will be: Trump-Pence, Pence-Haley, Kasich-Martinez, Sasse-Gallagher," read a Twitter poll posted by prominent conservative Bill Kristol one morning last May.
It was a lighthearted survey and the Gallagher option, paired with Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, came in last. But it was an early sign that the freshman congressman was on the radar of high-profile Beltway Republicans.
Nearly one year later, Gallagher, of Wisconsin, has cemented his image as a rising star _ one with an unusually independent reputation in today's Republican Party.
In an era of intense political tribalism, Gallagher is the rare House member from a strongly pro-Trump district who has broken sharply with the White House over a range of issues, including the firing of ex-FBI Director James Comey and the Russia-related investigations.
Even more rare: he has done it _ so far _ without sparking crippling conservative backlash.
"All Americans should want the president to be successful, right? If he's successful, the country's successful," Gallagher told McClatchy in an interview in his Capitol Hill office last month.
But, he said, "It's not my job to just salute everything the White House does."
"He's done a very, very good job of navigating the Trump rapids," said Kristol, the editor at large of the Weekly Standard and a Trump critic. "Of not picking unnecessary fights with Trump and Trump supporters, but not in any way bending over backwards, as so many other Republicans have, to give up principles or��be obsequious to Trump."
Gallagher, 34, is a Princeton- and Georgetown-educated Marine veteran with a Ph.D., and an acolyte of former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster. He delights in policy wonkery, which offers some cover when he breaks with Trump: party leaders, referencing his resume, suggest that Gallagher has earned "the right to his own opinion."
His Marine discipline shapes his personal life, too: Gallagher, one of Congress's youngest members, sleeps in his office, works long hours and has health nut tendencies.
"Let's get some vegetables and some protein!" he said one recent morning, unsatisfied with the National Republican Congressional Committee's "heavily salted almond" offerings. "Let's also install pull-up bars ... if you have to endure the pain of raising money, at least you can knock out a set of pull-ups in frustration."
Republican donors and operatives see the freshman workaholic as the next sterling-credentialed member with a maverick streak who could shape the future of their deeply divided party _ if he can outlast the turbulence and tribalism of the moment.
