Rep. Elise Stefanik, the highest-ranking GOP woman in the House of Representatives, is leading a charge to break the record for Republican women serving in the chamber, just six years after a blue wave wiped out their ranks.
Stefanik, R-N.Y., who chairs the GOP conference, has been focused on bolstering the ranks of Republican women in the House since she raised alarm about the “crisis level” after the 2018 midterm elections, when the number of GOP women dropped to just 13.
In the nearly six years since then, Stefanik and others have worked to recruit and early support female candidates. The number of Republican women in the House has tripled to a record 36, including two nonvoting members.
This time around, a potential win could help the GOP grow from a slim majority plagued by discord and infighting into a more robust governing majority next year.
“It’s a model that has worked effectively, and it will be effective this time as well,” Stefanik said in an exclusive interview this week.
Others involved in the effort to empower GOP women also hope to reach another milestone this year.
“We’d like to see a new record this cycle, but we’re not taking anything for granted,” Danielle Barrow, executive director of the Winning for Women Action Fund, said in a statement. “Republicans owe their House majority to Republican women who flipped hot districts, and WFW Action Fund is working hard to defend them and flip more of them in November.”
But breaking the record again could be a tall order, with several key dropouts looming and other races depending on voter elections in the country’s most divided districts.
Three GOP women — Kay Granger of Texas, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Debbie Lesko of Arizona — are retiring, along with Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, Jenniffer González-Colón, who is running for governor. Republicans are expected to add at least two new women to the House of Representatives, with Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota and Sheri Biggs of South Carolina winning primaries in deep-red open seats.
To break the current record, female Republican representatives and their challengers would need to win at least 11 of the 16 House elections with female candidates, which the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates as competitive. They include some tough reelection races and eight races with candidates in Democratic districts.
“I still think we can go further than where we are now,” said Stefanik, who said the female incumbents are strong candidates, pointing to Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel of California and Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon.
“Those are tough races,” Stefanik said. “They’re going to win those races.”
Stefanik also named several women who could win the seat, including former GOP Reps. Yvette Herrell of New Mexico and Mayra Flores of Texas, and other candidates including Alison Esposito of New York and Caroleen Dobson of Alabama.
Even if Republicans don’t achieve a new record, Stefanik said, the party is “on the right track.”
Nearly six years ago, Stefanik declared that the number of GOP women in the House had reached “crisis levels.” She clashed with Tom Emmer of Minnesota, then chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who said it would be a “mistake” for Stefanik to focus on supporting female candidates through her group, E-PAC. Stefanik responded at the time that she “didn’t ask permission.”
Since then, Emmer and other GOP leaders have become partners in her efforts, Stefanik said. She noted that the leadership sometimes partners with E-PAC on endorsements and that women were key to the GOP’s 2020 win.
A record number of female Republicans ran that year, a record that was broken again in 2022, when 261 female GOP candidates ran for the House, according to the Center for Women and Politics at the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics. But this year, the number has fallen to 161.
The number of House candidates has generally declined since 2022, a redistricting year that brought a wave of new candidates. The Center for Women and Politics found that the biggest decline was among Republican women. Asked about that decline, Stefanik pointed to fewer Republican retirements and fewer GOP targets this year, where Republicans hold the majority.
For Stefanik, the effort to recruit more GOP women to the House of Representatives has been a huge success.
She said her push to support female candidates coincided with her own rise during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment hearings. The national profile helped her build a huge list of small fundraisers, which she’s shared with candidates. This election cycle alone, Stefanik and her PAC have helped funnel $2.5 million to Republican women.
Other groups have stepped up since that low point in 2018, including the Winning for Women Action Fund. Barrow said the group has raised more than $11 million for Republican women this election cycle. Stefanik pointed to outside groups such as Winning for Women, VIEW PAC, RightNOW PAC and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America as evidence of the growing effort.
Democratic women have been gaining traction in Congress for years.
While Republicans have 36 women in the House, Democrats have 94, including two nonvoting members. Democratic women have gotten a big boost over the years from EMILY’s List, which backs female candidates who support abortion rights.
Stefanik said she doesn’t believe the GOP’s efforts need to become more centralized, noting that each group prioritizes different types of seats and policies.
The groups are particularly focused on encouraging women in primaries, which have long been a hurdle for female Republican candidates.
While several women won their primaries this year, there were also losses. In Alaska’s At-Large District, Stefanik and other leaders rallied behind Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who ended her campaign after Republican Nick Begich won more votes in the state’s all-party, top-four primary.
“We’re not going to have 100 percent success,” Stefanik said. “You have to take some risks to elevate the amazing backgrounds of these women, and everyone at the leadership table understood that.”
The decentralized effort has also run into some conflicts, most notably this year in Washington’s 3rd District, where Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is one of five Democrats defending seats Trump won in 2020.
The Winning for Women Action Fund backed Camas City Councilwoman Leslie Lewallen, who argued that 2022 GOP candidate Joe Kent was unelectable. Stefanik and Trump backed Kent, a former Green Beret who narrowly lost to Gluesenkamp Perez in 2022.
Democrats are again trying to paint Kent as extreme, launching attacks citing reports of ties to right-wing groups. Stefanik denies these reports and says she does not know the aides referred to in the reports.
“I don’t support women just because they’re women,” Stefanik said when asked why she was backing Kent. She said her team is combing through polls and assessing possible paths to victory. Stefanik also said she knew Kent before he ran for Congress and worked to have a post office named after his late wife, a New York native who was killed while serving in the Marines in Syria.
“Joe Kent, I think, has done a really good job of rebuilding his team, of building his name recognition,” Stefanik said. “The polls that we looked at showed that he’s in a really strong position, and that’s why Marie Gluesenkamp Perez literally walks away from any question about Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.”
While Republicans continue to try to increase the number of GOP women in Congress, they still struggle to win over female voters. The latest NBC News national poll showed Harris leading Trump by 21 percentage points among women, and congressional Democrats leading Republicans by 18 points.
“When it comes to women voters, we’re focused on making inroads,” said Stefanik, who is a national co-chair of Women for Trump. She said Republicans have flipped seats in the House of Representatives in part by appealing to women voters on economic issues and inflation.
Stefanik was confident that not only would Republican women expand their ranks, but that Republicans would retain the House. Her home state is key to the House majority, and she said New York’s incumbents are in a strong position.
“We are not losing the House,” she said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
