The bogus war on women of Election 2014 turned into a gusher of a win for GOP women.
I won't try to tell you Republican women are exactly where they want to be -- or anywhere near where they should be -- but certainly they made great strides this election to push back against the Democrats' agenda, present a compelling case for middle class issues and challenge the party on the left with more GOP women on the ballot than ever before.
My point is, Republicans didnt eliminate the gender gap, but they narrowed it significantly, which is why they won many key races.
Consider the sea change:
In 2012, President Obama won the womens vote by 11 percentage points, 55 percent to Mitt Romneys 44 percent. After the president's re-election some political analysts were suggesting maybe Republicans had lost the womens vote forever.
Then, a late October CNN poll found 49 percent of women approved of Obamas job performance, down from 55 percent in the final CNN poll before Election Day 2012. A Harvard poll of Americans 18- to 29-years-old showed only 45 percent of young women approved of the presidents job performance; an ABC poll revealed the president hit an empathy low in October -- fewer Americans than ever before said Barack Obama understood the problems of people like them.
It's pretty clear now that the so-called war was a cover-up to hide the Democrats real strategy -- distracting women from the disastrous effects of Obamacare.
Five million Americans lost their coverage and doctors because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), an issue Democrats preferred first to deny, then not to talk about on the campaign trail. But women were smarter than they thought. Women recognized a political tactic when they saw one.
What policy solutions did the Democrats offer besides promising government-financed birth control? None. Access to health care is a serious issue for women. Certainly they're concerned about more than their birth control.
The election was a testament to the wrong-headedness of the Democratic "war on women" rhetoric.
The war was exposed as a humbug and a viral hypocrisy early on in the primary process through a disturbing, highly publicized trend of Democrats kneecapping women and minority candidates in key races.
Here is an example of a few -- and try to imagine what the headlines would read if this kind of treatment was going on in the Republican Party:
Marisa DeFranco. In Massachusetts, immigration lawyer Marisa DeFranco claimed sexism after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a poll of primary voters that failed to include her challenge to incumbent Democratic Rep. John Tierney. And why not? Because she preferred a public option to Obamacare -- and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz insisted Obamacare was a winning strategy.
Shaughnessy Naughton.In Pennsylvania, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) supported veteran Kevin Strouse over well-qualified small-business owner Shaughnessy Naughton in the 8th District. Naughton, a former chemist who left her lucrative career to help her familys struggling publishing business, eventually saved and expanded the company. Both Naughton and Strouse were against incumbent Republican Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick. But Naughton was shoved aside for the career politician.
Lynette Bryant. In the race for Arkansas governor, candidate Lynette Bryant -- who holds several degrees, including a medical doctorate -- filed a complaint with the NAACP and the Democratic National Committee, alleging Democrats in her state repeatedly denied her request to speak at the Saline County Jefferson Jackson Dinner. In fact, Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Vince Insalaco introduced her opponent, former Rep. Mike Ross, as the next governor of Arkansas at an event both candidates were attending.
Nan Rich. Bryant's plight probably sounded familiar to Florida Democrat Nan Rich -- former minority leader in the state Senate -- in the gubernatorial race for two years before Charlie Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat, announced his candidacy one day and was annointed by party leaders virtually the next. (I wrote about Rich many times over the last year.) Rich was denied an endorsement by the pro-abortion group EMILY's List, denied a primary debate. By the way, Wasserman Schultz abandoned Rich, just as she did DeFranco. And the torment doesn't end for Rich. Party big shots who called her "irrelevant" and a "nonfactor" then, are absurdly blaming her now for Crist's loss to Gov. Rick Scott.
Eloise Gomez Reyes. In California, in the congressional primary for the 31st District, the DCCC not-so-quietly endorsed Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar over three other Democrats, including attorney Eloise Gomez Reyes, according to Roll Call. Never mind that Gomez Reyes had the support of former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and EMILY's List.
On Nov. 4 Democrats were forced to watch the victories of newly elected U.S. Reps. Barbara Comstock in Virginia; Elise Stefanik in New York -- the youngest woman ever elected to Congress; Mia Love in Utah -- the first Republican African-American woman elected to Congress; and Sen.-elect Joni Ernst, first woman to represent Iowa in the U.S. Senate. All of these women offered real solutions to the issues women have said over and over again they care about: jobs and the economy, the size of government and the national debt, health care and national security and education.
A word of caution: Republicans need to remember that even though in 2014 they got new women elected to the U.S. House and Senate, they still have far fewer Republican women in Congress than the Democrats do. The GOP has more work to do to earn womens votes and get them on the ticket.
All too often in the past, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, "women end up being sacrificial lamb candidates" where they don't stand a chance. That wasn't the case this year.
"These were the races that determined the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. It was important that women were candidates in those races," she said.
Word of caution, women. Before you start celebrating, remember this: There are 535 people in Congress total, of which 101 are women. Simple math tells us that less than 19 percent of our representatives are women. And less than half of those are Republican women. Meanwhile, women account for slightly more than 50 percent of the population of the United States.
Get the picture?
We are emerging, we have not arrived. Not even close -- in spite of the election's good news for the GOP.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter @NancyLBSmith
