Banner Year for Female Candidates Doesn't Extend to Republican Women

[Botany]

Source: NY Times

It is the year of the woman, all right. But only for Democrats.

The number of Republican women in Congress next year will actually drop, even as the ranks of Democratic women swell to record heights. With a few races still undecided, the new Congress will have at least 105 Democratic women and 19 Republican women.

But that is not all: From Congress to governor to state legislatures, far more Democratic women ran in this cycle than Republican women. And that means fewer Republican women on the bench, gathering experience and credentials to move up to the next level.

As the incoming freshman class of the 116th Congress gathers in Washington this week for orientation, the only Republican woman attending was Carol Miller of West Virginia (she could be joined by a few others whose races are still too close to call).

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/us/politics/women-politics-republican.html

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Gee, I guess women weren't all that thrilled w/Judge Kavanaugh.

[Ohiogal]

1. How any thinking woman could be a Republican is beyond me.

[RainCaster]

6. "thinking" is the key word there

[sandensea]

2. I've very seldom known a woman who doesn't feel anything but contempt for GOPee women

If Republicans think that by fielding far-right women candidates, they'll woo women voters, they're are only fooling themselves.

Great post. Thank you.

[Ohiogal]

4. Unfortunately, they're around.

I overhear conversations among older white women when I go to the community swimming pool, since the arthritis class is usually there the same time I'm there for laps. They all defend Trump. And I have female family members who may not totally agree with Trump but totally diss Democrats as being a bunch of leftist kooks. I think they only think as far as their pocketbooks ("Republicans are always pro business"!) ("They will lower my taxes"!) and then that's where they stop thinking. Plus, there are just as many racists among older white women as there are older white men.

[Botany]

5. Fox News, the republican Jesus, right wing hate talk, and generations of family and friends ....

.... who live with and in bigotry and ignorance have taken their toll on many Americans. And
that toll is not just limited to men.

But in good news Kansas has elected a Native American lesbian kick boxer.

[sandensea]

7. Great anecdote and very true.

I remember seeing those very same types in Orange County, CA.

And not all were rich; some were secretaries, realtors, Bloomingdales counter clerks, etc.

One of the more interesting things about being white Democrat in a place like O.C. is that you can mingle around Republicans and, unless, you make your opinions known, they automatically assume you're one of them.

You do get a good insights that way; but I must admit it feels a liitle like walking around pod people.

No emotion; no emotion.

[irisblue]

3. These 2 paragraphs jumped out at me

snip... "With fewer women as candidates and officeholders, Republicans risk further widening a gender gap already at historic levels, since far more women vote Democratic than Republican, said Mirya R. Holman, a political scientist at Tulane University.

“We are approaching a Democratic Party that looks like the people that make up the party base,” Professor Holman said. “The Republican voting base is increasingly white, older and male. And the Republican candidates who won this time are those things.”