National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Rep. Tom Emmer (MN) told Breitbart News Saturday this past weekend that the Republican Party recruited the “best class” of candidates “ever” this cycle.
“Republicans, again, have the best class of candidates ever. And we’re presenting a stark contrast to the failed policies that Washington Democrats stand for,” the Republican campaign chief stated on air Saturday morning.
Emmer explained that four years ago, he mandated that the party was going to “have our conference look and sound more like the districts that were seeking to represent” and would seek help from other members from their respective states, acknowledging that lawmakers in Texas would know more about the state than Emmer, who represents a Minnesota congressional district.
LISTEN:
However, Emmer said in his interview that when he took over the role of NRCC chair, multiple people told him the party needed to diversify, but he instead learned that “the Republican Party is the most diverse party on Main Street.”
“What we did is we, four years ago, I kind of redid our recruitment strategy by putting our delegations, our members in charge. The first time we did it, it was headed up by Susan Brooks out of Indiana. She had a group of members around her, who then had members underneath them,” he described.
Describing the process of having members choose who they want to run, he said, “the result was incredible” because “we’ve got members who want nothing else but to win.”
Emmer also used an example from the last cycle when discussing having women run for office.
“Once we had a female candidate who identified that she was interested in running. She’d been contacted by one of our members. Then, we would have every woman elected in the Republican conference talk to that person, so they knew what it was like to come to Congress. So they knew what it was like to run a campaign, so they knew what it was like to get through a primary, so they knew what it was like to continue handling your family in your other duties while still representing your constituents back at home,” The NRCC chair stated.
“I mean, truly, the Republican Party, because of the diversity of our ideas and because our ideas are the right ones, allowing people to self-determine and chase the American Dream met. That’s why we are getting these fantastic candidates,” he explained.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.