GOP elected more new members named Greg than women in 2018

The dearth of women in the House GOP caucus can best be summed up in one short anecdote: In 2018, Republicans elected more new members named “Greg,” two, than new women members, one. In a sharp contrast, Democrats elected 35 new women members in 2018.

The two new Gregs are Reps. Greg Pence from Indiana and Greg Steube from Florida. The lone new woman Republican elected was Rep. Carol Miller of West Virginia.

The startling contrast was pointed out by a Bloomberg reporter — ironically named Greg — during an event host by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) about encouraging more Republican women to run for office. During the event, Stefanik noted a “crisis level of Republican women in Congress.”

After Republicans wholeheartedly embraced admitted sexual predator Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2016, then unreservedly supported accused child molester Roy Moore for Senate in 2017, and then enthusiastically embraced alleged attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2018, women voters overwhelmingly rejected Republicans in the 2018 midterms. At the same time, a record number of women ran for public office as Democrats.

While the new Congress has a record number of women, the overwhelming majority of women are Democrats. In fact, the GOP has only 13 women in a House caucus that is 90 percent white men. There are 89 Democratic women in the new Democratic House majority.

When Stefanik spoke out after the election about the need to support more Republican women, the man leading the GOP’s 2020 campaign efforts, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) called it a “mistake.”

While Republicans elected more new “Gregs” than women, voters elected new Democratic women all over the country. In fact, voters elected more new women named Katie from California (two: Rep. Katie Hill and Rep. Katie Porter) than Republican new women in the entire nation.

The Republican Party embraces men who abuse and attack women, and embrace policies that deny women control over their own health care and bodies. Trump’s vile treatment of women is causing even longstanding Republican women to abandon the party.

In Kansas, state Sen. Barbara Bollier ditched the Republican Party after four decades, in large part due to Trump’s vulgarity toward women.

Stefanik is correct in identifying a crisis. But until the Republican Party stops supporting sexual predators and attempted rapists, women are likely going to continue supporting Democrats.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.