Women and Politics

This post was submitted by Jean Qiao, WCF Communications Fellow

Regardless of which party you identify with, there is one faction that the 2010 election cycle shouldn’t ignore: Women. But according to Roll Call, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) doesn’t seem to be focusing on recruiting strong female candidates.

Roll Call called out the lack of female Republican candidates  in some of the most competitive House races around the country. In the Young Guns program—a program sponsored by the NRCC that provides fundraising for Republican candidates—the lack of viable women candidates is astonishing:

“Out of the top 10 candidates in the NRCC’s ‘Young Guns’ program, there is one woman: Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby in Alabama. The next tier of 20 ‘Contenders’ in the program includes two women, and the lowest tier of ‘On the Radar’ candidates has only one”.

As WCF President/CEO Sam Bennett said in her interview with Fox’s America’s News HQ,  in order for the GOP to succeed in increasing their 4%  representation in U.S. Congress in this election cycle, they must recruit more women. America is hungry for the middle ground, and female moderate republican women (read: Dede Scozzafava) are the way to deliver that.

However one promising tidbit is that the NRCC has seemed to pick up the most important thing about women running for political office; the simple yet powerful three-letter word: ASK. Women must be asked an average of six times before they seriously consider running for office. And the efforts made by the NRCC seem to have paid off for State Rep. Jackie Walorski who is now running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in Indiana:

“The NRCC ‘started calling me three or four years ago,’ Walorski recalled. ‘They called me constantly to try to get me to run. I got so tired of hearing from them, I told them to stop calling me’”.

One can only hope that the NRCC continues their efforts on recruiting and supporting women candidates.

We’ve said this too many times. Women bring a new palette of ideas and knowledge, which simply cannot be ignored in a country where a majority of the population is female. Women are the key to fixing our broken government. Currently, only 17 Republican women currently serve in the House of Representatives. If the GOP wants to shift the balance in Congress this year, they must turn to moderate women.

It seems that Dede Scozzafava’s party is failing her. Word came today of even more Republicans jumping ship to back Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election.

At first, I had hope. The list of people backing Hoffman wasn’t exactly current party leadership: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Former New York Gov. George Pataki, Former House majority leader Dick Armey, Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

However, now we hear that National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman (NRCC) Pete Sessions is jumping ship on Dede, too. Sessions told POLITICO he would welcome Hoffman “with open arms.”

So now, thanks to those who don’t feel that the Republican Party should embrace ideals such as women’s rights, Hoffman is rising in the polls, and the GOP is afraid of losing the Republican seat.

To those who abandoned their own candidate, I have to ask: What if you stood in defense of Dede instead of caving to outside pressure? What would the outcome be if her party actually supported her properly?

Is this how all Republican female candidates should expect to be treated—left in the dust when faced with opposition? Abandoned for standing up against sexual abuse? Cast aside to endorse a candidate who drags the party backward?

Shame on you for deserting your own candidate, and double shame on you for deserting a strong female candidate, who you so desperately need for your party’s future.