House Republican women are calling on their male GOP colleagues to take the party’s problem with women more seriously, Politico reports.
In the midterm elections, the number of female GOP legislators dropped from 23 to 13, and the party lost the support of suburban mothers to Democrats. Republican women like Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York both have made attempts to increase their standing in the party, and to draw attention to the lack of women.
Wagner, the financial director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, had planned on running to lead the GOP’s campaign arm, but backed down after a conversation with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in which he shared his preference for the less prominent male Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who is now NRCC chairman-elect. Last week, Stefanik announced that she is leaving the NRCC to found her own political group aimed at helping women win Republican primaries.
“I am going to keep pointing out to my colleagues that we are at a crisis level for GOP women,” she said in an interview. “This election should be a wake-up call to Republicans that we need to do better … We need to be elevating women’s voices, not suppressing them.”
Emmer cast doubt on Stefanik’s idea to focus on helping women in the primaries, calling it “a mistake,” leading Stefanik and other Republican women, and some GOP men like House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, to come out in support of Stefanik’s cause.
“I’m sorry — Tom Emmer is wrong on this one,” said retiring Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee, an early supporter of Stefanik. “To say what Elise is doing is a mistake? We need to applaud her. She’s filling a void.”
Black said that “OK, the NRCC’s policy is that they are not going to help in the primary ... But if [women] don’t get out of the primary, what good is that?”
Stefanik told Politico in a more recent interview that “Emmer’s tone has changed and has been a bit more respectful and encouraging of my efforts.”
“It’s so disappointing I could just scream,” Black said, referring to the number of Republican women. “We have got to grow the women in our party.”
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