Republicans “still have work to do” appealing to women voters, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden said Friday.
In an election year when the Republican Party hoped to better engage with women voters, a demographic that has eluded the party in recent years, Republican candidates nationwide still haven’t closed the gap with Democrats.
When asked how Republicans should address this enduring problem, however, Walden did not point to engaging on some of the issues Democrats have successfully used in this election cycle, including access to birth control and abortion.
“You would find very few of our campaigns are run on those issues,” Walden said during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. “People feel very strongly and passionately about their positions on those issues. But it’s usually the Democrats that are running those ads, and what we’re trying to talk about is a lot of other issues: jobs, the economy, national security, government overreach.”
Instead, Walden attributed the challenges Republicans face with women to not talking enough, or well enough, about issues like national security or healthcare.
“Eighty-five percent of health care decisions are made by women,” Walden said. “When we talk about healthcare, we need to do a better job of talking about healthcare.”
“What we’re seeing pop up in the polling data is security moms being very concerned about this administration’s failures around the globe, and so that’s an issue that we are talking to,” Walden added. “We’re trying to do a better job.”
But Walden also accused Democrats of unchecked sexism in many campaigns, which he says has hurt Republican candidates like Barbara Comstock in Virginia.
An ad released this week by Comstock’s campaign labeled her Democratic challenger, John Foust, as “sexist.” Last month, Foust said of Comstock at a campaign event, “I don’t think she’s even had a real job.”
“[Foust] seems to get away with it, which I think is offensive,” Walden said. “They’ve taken some cheap shots at Barbara that would never be allowed.”
If Republican candidates continue to fare poorly among women this election cycle, it’s not for lack of trying: Politico reported last year, for example, that the NRCC held “multiple sessions” for members on “messaging against women opponents.”
