Rep. Elise Stefanik is calling it “the year of the Republican woman.”
“We are going to increase our ranks. There will be more Republican women serving in the United States Congress than ever before in our nation’s history,” the New York Republican said during a Fox News interview on Wednesday.
The House GOP is adding at least a dozen more women to its roster after Tuesday’s election. This nearly doubles the 13 Republican women currently serving in the House.
Even more women could be added as election results continue to trickle in. During a press conference Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “We will likely have an additional 14 to 19 Republican women.”
“This will break the record for the most Republican women coming in at any one time. We’ll double the number, and we’ll set a record for the most women ever in the Republican Party,” he continued.
Some of the newcomers will include Maria Elvira Salazar from Florida and Stephanie Bice from Oklahoma.
Republican women also helped the House GOP gain more seats, with at least five GOP women flipping their districts from blue to red. They include Nancy Made in South Carolina, Yvette Herrell in New Mexico, and Ashley Hinson in Iowa.
The previous record for the number of Republican women serving in the House at one time was set in 2006 with 25 women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Before 2020, only nine women have ever been elected to the House GOP at one time.
Stefanik has been leading the charge in getting more Republican women elected. She started the political action committee E-PAC in 2018 to mentor and financially support female GOP congressional candidates.
