With several races still unresolved, Republicans are on track to make major gains in the House of Representatives — with women definitely leading the way.
Female candidates account for most of the seats that the GOP has wrested from the Democrats so far, and this year is likely to set a new record for the number of Republican women elected to the House (beating 2004’s 25). Two dozen have won already, and another seven may yet be declared the victors.
“The story of the night is the success of Republican women at the ballot box,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who led the drive to recruit and elect more female candidates. “For all these naysayers, we have proven that strong, Republican women are the best candidates to put on the ballot.”
Several were sure things, running in safe red seats: Kat Cammack (Fla.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Mary Miller (Ill.-15), Lisa McClain (Mich.) and Diana Harshbarger (Tenn.).
But others beat longer odds, including (so far) New York’s own Nicole Malliotakis as well as Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Victoria Spartz (Ind.), Ashley Hinson (Iowa), Michelle Fischbach (Minn.), Yvette Herrell (NM), Kendra Horn (Ind.), Nancy Mace (SC) and Beth Van Duyne (Texas). Nearly all of them unseated Democratic incumbents.
The 2019-20 House had just 13 Republican women; Stefanik’s leadership may well see that figure triple.
All this, when Democrats had been smugly predicting they’d gain House seats, with women leading the way. Speaker Nancy Pelosi boasted on Election Day, “Tonight, House Democrats are poised to further strengthen our majority — the biggest, most diverse, most dynamic, women-led House majority in history.”
To be fair, it was a team GOP effort that went far beyond Stefanik’s work: “The Republican Party vowed to make gains among GOP women, and it did because it prioritized the problem,” Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman for WFW Action Fund, a super PAC to elect conservative women, told The New York Times. “We’re seeing that Republican women will win.”
Consider it all a surprising-to-some spin on Bey-oncé’s anthem: “Who run the world? (Girls).”