Republicans have a women problem and they know it. Their dwindling number in Congress “breaks my heart”, said Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., who lost her bid for the Senate and will leave Capitol Hill — possibly for good — in January.
Also departing are widely-respected members like Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., many of whom attracted big money to races that ended in defeat. With a handful of races still undecided, the number of Republican women in the House of Representatives looks to have dropped from 25 to 17 — the lowest number in the House in a decade.
Of 30 new Republican members, only one is a woman — Rep.-elect Carol Miller of West Virginia — even as the total number of women in the House is expected to jump from 89 to 102.
GOP women are disheartened by the lack of presence by females in the party conference. One new female Republican senator was elected — bringing the number to seven — compared to 17 for the Democrats.
Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., said that she sought out Miller at the House GOP’s leadership election votes on Tuesday and sat with her during the nearly two-hour vote. “Oh, I definitely want more women,” Lesko said, underselling the number of GOP women. “There wouldn’t only be, what, 12-13 of us?”
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., former chairman of the House GOP campaign arm, believes the GOP needs the conference to be more reflective of the country and that they have become too reliant on men, both in Congress and at the ballot box, and that the remedy starts with recruiting.
“It is a problem. The conference needs to look more like the country, and that suggests we need to do a better job recruiting, and I think there’s a realization that that’s the case,” Cole said. “It’s pretty simple: The more women you get running, the more chances you have that a group of them will break through and come across.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is also concerned. Recruiting women to run has been a “frustration,” he said last week, as has been getting a Senate GOP woman to serve on the Judiciary Committee.
One voice Republicans are looking at to help in the recruiting arena is Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the newly-elected No. 3 in the conference who is tasked with messaging for the party. “She matters a lot,” Cole said. “I think she’ll be a really, really strong spokesperson for us.” In the Senate, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has been appointed whip — the first woman in GOP leadership for a decade.
Among those who could still win in uncalled races are Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, who President Trump personally attacked when he thought her race was over, and Young Kim, the GOP candidate in California’s 39th congressional district. Kim would be the first Korean-American woman to serve in the House. Currently, it looks like Love will win — despite being branded a “loser” by President Trump — and Kim will lose.
“Yes, we’ve got to do better, but it’s not the way if you look at the number itself,” said the incoming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in an interview, arguing that women were “more engaged” in this year’s election
He cited a “perfect storm” of events for the drop-off. “It’s a combination,” McCarthy said. “They would not have been able really to run for higher office had not been here, that we recruited them to come here. Then, we had a perfect storm. Bad year, suburban areas, Bloomberg money. So it’s a combination.”
