Rep. Elise Stefanik Wants to Help the GOP Tackle Its ‘Gender Crisis’
“Facing a crisis level of Republican women in Congress”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) witnessed the GOP take a hit in the 2018 midterms in the House where the number of GOP women was reduced from 23 to 13.
Stefanik wants to change that through her leadership political action committee called E-PAC.
From The Hill:
To get there, Stefanik’s group, E-PAC, is making strides to reach the high-dollar fundraising and massive network of Democratic women’s groups like EMILY’s List. That is an area where Republicans have traditionally come up short, but one they are seeking to emulate this cycle.
The three-term congresswoman has attracted the support of top House Republican leaders, after the GOP lost dozens of seats last November.
The relaunch event for her PAC last week was attended by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (La.), and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.) in what was a display of strength for her efforts.
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) who initially appeared to butt heads with Stefanik on her efforts to attract women candidates to Republican primaries, heaped praise on her and offered to help “to the extent we can.”
Her EPAC has already raised $250,000:
Lawmaker checks have come in from McCarthy, Emmer, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Chief Deputy Whip Drew Ferguson of Georgia, and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Fred Upton of Michigan, Ann Wagner of Missouri, Greg Walden of Oregon, Susan W. Brooks and Jackie Walorski of Indiana, Martha Roby of Alabama, and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
Women have already approached the NRCC about running, new executive director Parker Poling said, and the committee has referred those women to Stefanik. Emmer name-dropped Iowa state Rep. Ashley Hinson, who’s interested in challenging freshman Democrat Abby Finkenauer in the 1st District next year.
At the kickoff event, Stefanik stressed that the GOP is “facing a crisis level of Republican women in Congress.” When asked if President Donald Trump will affect the recruitment, Stefanik reminded reporters “that women – particularly single and young women – have long tended to vote far more Democratic than men” and this has been a problem for the GOP before Trump came into office.
Stefanik has success when it comes to recruitment:
During her NRCC tenure, the number of Republican women congressional candidates spiked. However, many of those women didn’t make it past the primaries, helping fuel Stefanik’s conviction that promoting women in primaries would boost the party’s numbers.
She publicly feuded with Chairman Emmer over whether or not to fund primary candidates. Emmer stressed on Thursday that the NRCC typically stays out of primary races, and that he sees Stefanik’s PAC as “an enhancement” of the party’s existing recruitment activities.
At her event, Stefanik emphasized the importance of this effort.
“I believe that one way we can attempt to change this trend is by supporting strong women candidates pre-primary,” Stefanik added. “As any candidate will tell you, this investment is critical.”
Today, I am excited to launch #EPAC to support #GOPWomen. Thank you to House Leadership for your participation @GOPLeader @SteveScalise @Liz_Cheney @tomemmer this afternoon https://t.co/Q7x9M6m2L5
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) January 17, 2019
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Comments
. . . the GOP is “facing a crisis level of Republican women in Congress.”
Fiddlesticks. The GOP is facing a crisis level of Republicans—period—in Congress. Even when we gave them a clear majority in both houses they managed to waste two years being useless.
So what is the theory that packing more women in will address this failure? If all they’re interested in is body count, voters and donors aren’t going to be terribly impressed.
Amen to that. The crisis in the GOP is that the people who have control of the party have their own agenda (and that of their donors) that is against most of what their voters and the president want. If the power of the party leadership over their senators and congressmen isn’t broken, there’s no reason to keep voting for candidates who promise voters to deal with problems, and then refuse to because the party establishment is against it.
“the GOP is “facing a crisis level of Republican women in Congress.”
This is based on the assumption that too few women reduces the legitimacy of the conference (unless she really believes that women are better lawmakers than men. For now, let’s assume that sexist condescension is not the point).
The Democrats will certainly claim that. But notice that the decrease in women is at least partly due to 2 factors: 1. The Democrats targeted Republican women in particular. 2. D targeting of women worked because they were weak candidates in the first place.
Which brings us to the conclusion that running women for the sake of running women is not going to solve the alleged problem.
Agreed.
Let the Dems eat all their males with their obsession of demographics.
Conservatives should elect strong leaders of all races and both of the two real life sexes.
I wish I could upvote this 100 times. Not knowing how things are in your neck of the woods, one of the things that turned the ladies in North Texas off to Hillary was her constant harping on how deplorable men were.
And the ladies were, like, what is this woman saying about me? I married this man. This man is my son. This man is my father. I must be one sick (expletive deleted) if I am willing to put up with that.
On the other hand maybe he’s not as bad as Hillary, who doesn’t know him, says he is. In which case, tell her to bugger off.
As it turned out shared ovaries weren’t enough.
I have always made a strong effort to understand the female of the species. I think I have been largely successful.
I have also made a strong effort to understand the Ford F250, the Mustang, and the Dodge Charger.
Anybody’s leadership is better than the GOP hacks who’ve blown every chance we’ve ever given them. The dead guy Bernie, from Weekend At Bernie’s, might do better.
Maybe we can find our own Gidget Cortez. Or maybe we already have one in Elise:
“Stefanik criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, saying the decision was “misguided” and “harms the ongoing effort to fight climate change while also isolating us from our allies.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elise_Stefanik
She’s a NY Republican, what else would you expect? At least she isn’t on, or at least wishy washy about, the gun control bandwagon like King (he’s close to NYC, she’s upstate).
So far.
I know, let’s listen to the rinos and never-Trumpers? They’ve got it ALL figured out. Losers.
She’s a jerk
The female sex is fine. It’s the feminine gender (i.e. mental and physical attributes) that can cause a riot.
She can stuff it. I care about what’s between your ears not your legs. This woman would primary her if she lived in my state.
So Democrats may accept that there are 50 different “genders,” demand that men who identify as women be allowed into the restroom of their choice, decry “toxic masculinity,” applaud teen athletes with “gender dysphoria” who compete (and win!) when pitted against their chosen peers, invite a sexual predator to address their National Convention (ten times!), expect the military to admit transgender soldiers and women into combat…
…and yet, it’s the GOP which has a “gender crisis”?
I wish I could upvote this one about a hundred times.
I don’t care how many women are serving in congress. Identity politics gave us some of the worst politicians in my lifetime.
Republicans: Golly, identity politics sure is toxic and the Dems should knock it off.
Elise Stefanik (R-NY): Hold my beer.
As for this,”…the 2018 midterms in the House where the number of GOP women was reduced from 23 to 13.”
ALL 10 of those women either retired or resigned from the House (although not a one due to sexual harassment, like the numerous men who resigned).
I guess the argument could be made that no women were elected to replace the retired or resigned women, but seriously, do we have to ramp up the genitalian PAC in response?
How about simply the best candidate for the job PAC?
This is more proof that the Left truly does control the cultural narrative…
Yawn. So long as Democrats benefit from billions of dollars of free advertising from the media/entertainment axis (that’s BILLIONS, folks) and Third World-level voting fraud in a growing number of states, it won’t matter if Stefanik manages to raise a few nickels here and there. This does not even qualify as a futile gesture.
I don’t like the way she said it. She said it like a lefty.
We’re now buying tripe from a NY Republican.
AKA a RINO in the worst sense.
I do believe that the writer of this “article” become a bit more politically more savvy about NY politics before slurping up anything someone says because they have a “R” attached to their name.
Remember children: Republicans helped pass the NY SAFE ACT and other anti-rights bills. NY Republican politicians are no different than their liberal counterparts.
The ‘gender crisis’ is only a ‘crisis’ of you believe that representatives must show gender parity or that women legislate better than men by virtue of their vaginas.
You know, like Democrats do …
Yet another reason why I will never give money to the Republican party.
I’ve always made a concerted effort to support someone for public office based on their qualifications rather than what is or isn’t dangling betwixt their legs. I supported a strong, intelligent, articulate, well qualified and willing female Republican Senatorial candidate in the last 2 elections and she was systematically slandered, lied about and torn apart by Demonrats dressed in Republican clothing (aka, McLame and superFlake). Gender identity politics is never a good strategy for ANY political party…
Don’t care about women in Congress, D or R. I care about Conservatives in Congress. The GOP squandered the two years they had both houses and the presidency. From now on, I’m only voting for Conservatives. To hell with the GOP.
Not interested in identity politics.