Barbara Olschner believes in her party's founding principles: lower taxes, less regulation, limited government, and individual accountability. But she also believes in governing through compromise, in respectfully listening to opponents' viewpoints, and in the possibility that a Republican can be fiscally but not socially conservative. In hindsight, it isn't surprising that when she ran for Congress at the height of the Tea Party's influence she was branded an elitist and a RINO (Republican in Name Only)—and finished dead last.

The Reluctant Republican traces her campaign and her realization that the current leadership of her party demands strict adherence to its ideology. Not only are different viewpoints not tolerated, but those who espouse them are vilified for their disloyalty.