Election night 2014 saw a lot of “firsts” take place across the country — not only for the Republican Party but also for American history as a whole.
As one headline read, “There Are 100 Women in Congress for the First Time Ever.” Now that’s powerful, but to appreciate all of these firsts, we need to look back at what got us here and look forward to what we’ll do with it.
After an unsuccessful 2012 election, the RNC conducted extensive research and found that the party won among older women but lost out on the generation behind us.
In response to those findings, the RNC launched a women’s political initiative called 14 in ’14 that engaged Republican women aged 21-40 years old all across the country. The goal of the program was to start a two-way conversation and build a strong network of new Republican women to volunteer 30 minutes of their time each week. The “14 in ’14” program trained volunteers to recruit other women, identified voters, supported other get-out-the-vote efforts, and trained Republican messengers in their communities.
We also engaged female candidates and political operatives across the country in a strong training program that provided tools and support for those interested in becoming involved in the process.
The results of the 2014 effort are in and they’re terrific.
In the CNN exit polls, where the sample was 49% men and 51% women, women voted for the Democrat 51 percent and the Republican 47 percent. In 2012, that margin was 12 points. That’s significant ground to have made up in just two years, and as women’s support for GOP candidates grew, they elected some extraordinary GOP women.
Republican Mia Love will be the first African-American Republican woman elected to Congress in Utah.
Republican Elise Stefanik from New York will become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
Republican Joni Ernst will be the first woman ever elected to Congress from Iowa. Joni will also be the first female combat veteran ever elected to Congress.
There were also cases where Democrats overplayed their hands on women’s issues and their candidates were handily defeated. For instance, Colorado elected Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in 2008 in a wave of victories tied to the election of President Obama. Just six years later, Udall spent his campaign focusing on issues like contraception and abortion, while the Republican challenger focused on a variety of issues. The voters had their say on Election Day and elected Rep. Cory Gardner to the U.S. Senate seat for Colorado. We believe that this validates the efforts of the RNC. In fact, the RNC invested in new training programs because we knew that women were not single-issue voters. We knew that given the tools, they would be empowered to win elections, to govern and to lead.
I’m so looking forward to how these and the many other newly-elected candidates of the GOP will perform in the Republican Congress. I already know that we should be prepared for great things.
Election 2014 was the beginning of something wonderful for the Republican Party. With continued investment of time and effort, the party will continue the trend and demonstrate great value for women voters in Election 2016. It will also continue to grow the representation of Republican women in elected office.
I’m most pleased to declare another first for American history — the death of the Democrats’ supposed War on Women. The voters saw their tactic for what it was — a cheap political gimmick — and one that has now proven to be purely political theater.
Sharon Day is co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions for editorials, available at this link.
