A recent report claims that the Republicans’ path back into the majority in the House could go through Republican woman candidates after their huge impact in the 2020 election.
The report from CNN indicated that in 2020, Republican women were elected in record numbers, which included some of the most competitive races, like California’s Reps. Young Kim (CA) and Michelle Steel (CA), who both unseated Democrats to win.
“The party sees a recipe for electoral success and is now doubling down on that same strategy in the battle for the House next year,” the report noted. The party aims to keep the current elected Republican woman in place while finding strong Republican woman recruits for key districts the party is looking to flip.
The party’s plan seems to be working. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that in the current election cycle leading up to the midterms, more Republican women announced a prospective run for the House across the country than any other election cycle. A Breitbart News report added:
[M]oves like this fuel the confidence in the party’s plans to send a large number of women to the House, building off their successes in the 2020 election cycle. Despite the current pace of Republican women stepping up to run in the House, Democrats have had more female Members of Congress for years.
In the last election, Republican women were among some of the most anticipated candidates to watch across the nation. Most notably, of the 14 Republican wins over the Democrats on election night, 11 of them were women. That grew the number of Republican women in the House to 31, the highest it’s ever been. The previous congress had only 13 Republican women.
“There are several roads to taking back the House, but I think one road contains a lot of Republican women on it,” Kim told CNN. “Without a doubt, getting more GOP women elected to join the Republican conference is critically important.”
The number of women so far in this cycle has rapidly increased. Currently, there are 155 Republican women, which is an increase from the 127 in July. Those numbers are more than double what they were in 2019 at the same point in time.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Emmer (MN) recently said to reporters:
We got started last cycle. We had some success. Now we have to build off that success. … I anticipate that we’re going to set a new record this time, just like we did last time because we’re going to continue to add to the talent pool of women that we’ve attracted to the House.
The CNN report added:
GOP operatives point to several top recruits with sparkling resumes whom they think could have a strong shot at flipping seats currently held by Democrats. That includes Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez, a small business owner in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley; Jen Kiggans, a former Navy pilot and nurse practitioner and state lawmaker in Virginia; Lisa Scheller, the head of a manufacturing company in Pennsylvania; Amanda Adkins, the former chairwoman of the Kansas Republican Party; Esther Joy King, an Army lawyer from the Quad Cities in Illinois; and Meagan Hanson, a former state legislator in the Atlanta suburbs.
Republican woman incumbents have also been able to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first half of the year to build their war chest for the upcoming election. The report noted:
Freshman Reps. Michelle Steel of California, Ashley Hinson of Iowa and Nancy Mace of South Carolina all raked in [more] than $800,000 in the second quarter of this year, while Kim cleared $1 million during the same period — massive fundraising hauls for an off-year.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY), another freshman Republican woman, told CNN that “Leadership has been very helpful in giving us opportunities to run with issues, to be leaders on issues, and to obtain a spotlight on issues, which sometimes you don’t see from leaders. Sometimes they hog the spotlight for themselves.”
“They’ve been wanting to promote the freshman class because they’re so proud of the freshman class,” Malliotakis added.
Kim and Steel, who flipped seats in the same county in California, have reportedly been friends for decades. The report noted that the two Republicans, who are both Korean immigrants, started a “fundraising committee to boost their own campaigns and help elect other diverse Republicans,” the report noted. “We can raise money, we can meet people, and we can actually promote other women,” Steel said.
Steel continued, “So we’re gonna keep these seats, and we’re gonna recruit more, because the Republican Party has to be a big tent. All these diverse faces with unique backgrounds — this is actually reflecting our country.”
In regard to the article, the NRCC, said, “In 2020, NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer and the NRCC helped elect a record number of Republican women and are on track to do the same in 2022.”
“Republican women will lead the way to firing Nancy Pelosi and stopping her socialist agenda,” the NRCC added.
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