An op-ed in The New York Times claimed that women identifying as Republicans are “on the brink of extinction.”
In the op-ed published on Tuesday, Dr. Nancy Cohen argues that suburban women voters — who at one time reliably voted for Republican candidates — are abandoning the party.
Cohen references a survey from the Pew Research Center that found “women favor the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a 19-point margin,” and the decrease in the number of Republican officeholders that are women.
But in an interview on Fox News on Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel rejected that notion as “fake news,” and cited a slate of 181 female candidates recruited to run for House seats in 2020.
“I think this is fake news. Elise Stefanik had a great response to this. The House has recruited 181 women to run for Congress heading into 2020. It’s a record.”
Watch her comments below:
McDaniel credited the record recruitment to Trump’s handling of the economy.
“And why are Republican women lining up to run for Congress? Cause we have a message to women across this country, that President Trump’s policies have worked for them. Things like doubling the child tax credit. Paid leave we’ve now seen for federal workers. That over half of the new jobs created, over four million new jobs have gone to women. And record-low unemployment.”
She also pushed back on the notion that Republican women are facing “extinction” by noting that there are several female members of the administration.
“While they keep pushing this narrative, they always ignore women that are leading the way in the Republican Party. Like Kellyanne Conway, like Ivanka Trump, like Elaine Chao, Gina Haspel, me being only the second woman to chair the RNC raising record money.”
Additionally, McDaniel claimed that many suburban women oppose scrapping private health insurance or increasing taxes to pay for a variety of progressive policies.
Finally, she said she would like to see a greater representation of women in the Republican Party. And she urged female voters to consider voting for President Donald Trump and Republican candidates, arguing that conservative policies have led to record low unemployment and wage increases across the board.
