WASHINGTON, DC — In a new piece, CNN did a deep dive on the growing number of Republican women in Congress, which includes a record-breaking 42 Republican women. Excerpts are below, including insights from Winning For Women Founder and Chair Annie Dickerson, and the full story is available here.
From CNN:
“The trail [Lori Chavez-DeRemer] has blazed is emblematic of the progress that the Republican Party has made in electing women over the past decade – hard-fought milestones reached only after outside groups began playing a larger role in primaries…
“That push is not just about statistics. It’s imperative as the party tries to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters, including the many suburban women who abandoned the GOP after Donald Trump was elected in 2016.
“’Suburban women and independent women are going to continue to be the X factor in whether we win,’ said Annie Dickerson, the founder and chair of Winning for Women…
“’I had to sell it very differently in the beginning, back in 2017,’ Dickerson recalled. ‘And it was real work persuading donors that it wasn’t identity politics. It was really about identifying excellence.'”
New U.S. Representative Lori Chavez-DeRember (OR-05) described visiting the House years ago with her mom and daughters:
“‘I’d really love to be here someday,’ the Oregon Republican recalled telling her mother, who encouraged her to think about a run. She’d recently been elected to her city council, but she had her doubts. ‘I said, ‘Everybody on the floor there probably has a law degree. I’m a stay-at-home mom…’’
“’Little did I know that, really, my whole life, I was probably preparing for this,’ she said. ‘I needed to just be me.'”
