Another 'Year of the Woman,' Only This Time More Republican
"The men in the room laughed because they had never heard the question," she recalls. "Probably not as many people in the room are thinking about those kinds of needs."
The average state legislator is still a straight white man in his mid-50s. O'Shea is part of a cohort of candidates who can help reshape the demographics of legislatures. This year's nominees are trending younger, with more of them belonging to ethnic and racial minorities or identifying as LGBTQ.
EMILY's List, a political action committee that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights, has endorsed a record 700 legislative candidates, 30 percent of whom are women of color. The total number of women candidates at this point is just about equal to 2018, which was a record. Many women have been motivated to become more active in politics, including running for office, by the election of
Republican
O
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But this time around, more women, like O'Shea, are running as
The
This year, 227 Republican women ran for
At the state level, the RSLC launched an initiative known as "Right Women, Right Now" back in 2012. "Women typically have to be asked more than once," says Jorge-Tuñón. "As a whole, men are a lot quicker to say, 'Yeah, I'll go for it.'"
Recognizing that successful role models represent one of the best recruiting tools, the RSLC is hoping that the election of more Republican women will in turn prompt more women to consider running down the road. O'Shea notes that the
That's not why O'Shea decided to run. She's a small business owner angered by COVID-19 closures who decided to file for office at the last minute. But it didn't hurt.
"We are seeing an increase of Republican women running," Schriock says. "This will be shocking coming from the president of EMILY's List, but I think this is a good thing. I think more women across the board need to run for office."
Changing the Profile
In 2018,
"They've recruited good, diverse candidates for diverse districts," says
"Even though I'm a committed Republican, people like me are not represented," says
Republican
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Maienschein switched to the Democratic Party a month into his current term. "I didn't think it was right for him to switch parties right after taking all that Republican time and treasure," Cutter says.
She decided that the
It turned out, the bench was empty, so Cutter went for it. "I've never thought I would run for office," she says.
Changing Demographics of Democratic Women
More women are still running as
An IBD/TIPP poll of the presidential race released this week showed Trump barely winning men, 47 to 46 percent, but losing women by a 17-point margin against Democrat
"Women with conservative values don't fit the narrative," Cutter says. "That part has been challenging."
Maienschein has been touting his support of women's reproductive rights, but Cutter argues it's reductionist to look at the concerns of women solely through that lens. "I respond that all issues are women's issues," she says. "Everything we talk about impacts women just as much as it impacts men."
Cutter may have a tough time in a district where Democratic registration is growing. In
In every contested election, someone has to lose, but women can't be winners if they don't run in the first place. That's an obvious fact that's gained increased attention from
"People can see me in my conservative values or in all the demographics that appeal to a wide variety of voters,"
Senior Staff Writer
[email protected] -- @AlanGreenblatt
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