By Jack Brewster

July 2, 2021

TOPLINE

As Republicans look to overcome Democrats’ narrow majority in the House, a wave of GOP women have announced plans to run for seats in the lower chamber in 2022.

KEY FACTS

More Republican women have said they will run for the House at this stage than any recent election cycle, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). 

So far, 127 GOP women have announced plans to run for a House seat, more than twice the 50 women who had declared their candidacy by this point in the 2020 cycle. 

The 127 women is the most at this stage for the GOP since 2010, when Republicans won a net gain of 63 seats and took back the House. 

In 2020, a record 227 Republican women ran for House seats. 

NOT-SO-BIG NUMBER

121. That’s the number of women serving in the House during the 117th Congress. Just 31 Republican women fill a seat in the lower chamber, compared to 88 Democratic women. 

KEY BACKGROUND

New data from Pew Research Center on last year’s election shows the gender gap was cut in half in 2020 as compared to 2016. President Joe Biden won women voters by 11 points (55% to 44%) over former President Donald Trump, a 4-point decline from 2016, when former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won women by 15 points (54% to 39%). Biden made inroads with men, losing the demographic by just 2 points to Trump (50% to 48%), according to Pew. 

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“While 2020 was a record-breaking year for #GOPWomen, we are just getting started,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), House GOP conference chair, wrote on Twitter. “Make no mistake: #GOPWomen will be the first ones through the breach to #FIREPelosi once & for all!”

CHIEF CRITIC

Stefanik, a rising star in the Republican Party, replacedRep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as GOP conference chair in May after Cheney continued to criticize Trump over the January 6 Capitol riot and spurious election fraud claims. Ahead of the conference chair vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed Republicans for pushing out Cheney, accusing them of seeking a “non-threatening female” to replace her. The number one and two Republicans in the House are men: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.)

You can read the full article at: Forbes.com