[18] Capito was mentioned as a possible challenger to Joe Manchin for the vacated United States Senate seat of the late Robert Byrd.

[34] In her 2020 reelection campaign, Capito easily defeated Republican primary challengers Allen Whitt and Larry Butcher, before facing Democratic nominee Paula Jean Swearengin in the general election.

[55] As of November 19, 2020, Capito had not publicly acknowledged that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, though it had been called by all major media and analysts.

[76] In 2013, she voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which includes provisions to assist victims regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity and prohibits funding programs that discriminate.

[78][79] In 2017, Capito disagreed with President Trump's use of Twitter to announce a ban on transgender troops in the military, saying, "we should be thankful for any American who selflessly serves our country to defend our freedoms.

[89][90][91][92] She had previously been among the few Republican senators who publicly supported Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision ruling abortion bans unconstitutional.

[93][94][95][96] But in 2020, she declared her support for March for Life, an anti-abortion movement,[97] and in 2022, she reversed her position on Roe, saying she believes states should be free to ban abortion.

[108][109] She supported federal funding for family planning in the House[110] but voted to require parental consent for minors seeking an abortion.

[133] Barrett signed a letter calling for the end of Roe v. Wade, and supported a group that holds that life begins at fertilization.

[136][137][138] Also in 2021, she was one of just three Senate Republicans (with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski) to decline to sign amicus briefs in the Mississippi case that seeks to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

[143][144] In September 2022, Capito said she was opposed to a national 15-week abortion ban proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

[145][146][147][148] Capito is partnering with Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand, Patty Murray, Amy Klobuchar and other bipartisan members of Congress to update the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995.

[149] In August 2018, She and Senator Joe Manchin announced $899,927 for the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services through the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women.

[151] In May 2005, as a representative, Capito broke with her party, voting with a majority of Democrats, to repeal restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research funding.

[151] Capito was endorsed by the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and West Virginia Citizen's Defense League which both support gun owners' rights in 2014.

[181][182] In 2024, Capito led a bill to create an advisory council to support research, care, and services to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

She is encouraged by ongoing negotiations between the Trump Administration and members of Congress to improve immigration policy and add resources for enforcement.

[154] Capito disagreed with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions's 2018 memo on marijuana-related prosecutions, saying, "I'm going to go on the record as saying I'm against recreational marijuana, but I respect the states' rights to make that decision".

[196] In February 2019, in response to reports of the EPA intending to decide against setting drinking water limits for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as part of an upcoming national strategy to manage the aforementioned class of chemicals, Capito was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Acting EPA Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler calling on the EPA "to develop enforceable federal drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, as well as institute immediate actions to protect the public from contamination from additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

"[197] In 2020, she cosponsored legislation with fellow West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to "enhance a tax credit that Congress expanded in 2018 to spur investment in carbon capture technology.

[201] The letter, which sought to dissuade Iran from reaching an agreement with President Barack Obama on nuclear peace, was described by the White House as "undercutting foreign policy".

[44] Capito supports the Republican Main Street Partnership's motion to elevate the EPA to be a Cabinet-level department, which would bring more oversight to the entity.

[207] In March 2011, Capito and other members of West Virginia's House delegation co-sponsored a campaign to allow the remains of the last American living veteran of World War I, Frank Buckles, to lie in state at the Capitol rotunda.

The move, requested by Buckles's family, had been blocked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner.

[227] Capito was among a few Republicans, including Joni Ernst of Iowa and Susan Collins of Maine, to express criticism of Trump's nominee to the Federal Reserve, Stephen Moore, because of comments he had made about women; he ultimately withdrew the nomination.

[44] Capito opposed having a hearing for President Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, to the Supreme Court due to the nomination's proximity to the 2016 presidential election.

[240] But she also said she considered the allegation serious and was among a handful of Republican senators to ask for a vote to be delayed in order to hear from the accuser and from Kavanaugh.

The resolution was introduced after multiple Democratic presidential candidates expressed openness to the idea of expanding the seats on the Supreme Court.

[243] In September 2020, less than two months before the next presidential election, Capito supported an immediate vote on Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death.

In March 2016, she took the opposite position when facing Obama's nominee, saying that a justice should not be considered during a presidential election year because "West Virginians and the American people should have the ability to weigh in at the ballot box".