Mind the GOP gender gap

(Editorial Observer): With the announcement last week that Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., will not run for reelection next year, Republicans in Congress suffered yet another setback in their struggle to convince the American public that they are more than a collection of angry white men.

Brooks’ departure is embarrassing for a party that lost ground among female voters in the 2018 midterms and tilted ever more male in its congressional seats. A fourth-term lawmaker, she is one of only 13 women out of 198 House Republicans. (Of 235 House Democrats, 89 are women.) She is among the more moderate voices in a caucus desperate to win back the educated, affluent, suburban women (and men) who abandoned the party in November. Most awkwardly, as head of recruitment for the National Republican Congressional Committee, or NRCC, she is in charge of persuading women to run for office on the Republican line.

Brooks is sensitive to how her departure could reflect on her team and has repeatedly insisted she’s leaving for strictly personal reasons. “I’m not retiring because I’m upset with the Republican Party, because I’m upset with our leadership, because I’m upset with the president or vice president,” she told a reporter last week. She stressed to another: “This really is not about the party. It’s not about the politics.”

Despite her planned departure, Brooks is expected to continue her work at the NRCC. “Susan has assured me that she will be increasing her recruitment efforts,” said Rep. Tom Emmer, the committee’s chairman, “so we are full steam ahead.”

The Trump era has been rough for the Republican Party’s efforts to address its enduring difficulties in attracting women candidates and voters. Whatever women think of the party’s positions on issues such as reproductive rights, health care and gun safety, many are put off by President Donald Trump’s divisive politics, belligerent style and personal sexism. In the midterms, Democrats claimed 59% of women voters. The shift by white, college-educated women voters away from Republicans played a significant role in handing control of the House to Democrats.

After Republican women watched their numbers in the House drop from 23 to 13 (the lowest in almost a quarter-century) and the gender gap grow (to the biggest in a quarter-century), they hit the panic button. They fear that, if women don't see themselves represented by and as having a voice in the party, their support will continue to slip.

While Brooks led the recruitment charge at the NRCC, Elise Stefanik of New York, the committee’s previous recruitment chief, rebranded her leadership PAC to bolster women in primary races. Missouri’s Ann Wagner took aim at the suburbs and has been recruiting and financing women and minority candidates. She also rebooted the dormant Suburban Caucus to push a policy agenda aimed at suburban voters — including all those affluent, educated white women who defected to the Democrats.

Outside groups also increased their efforts. A new group, Winning for Women, arose to support “free-market conservative women running for federal office.” The group’s political action arm is spending six figures in a primary runoff next month in North Carolina, where its pick, Joan Perry, is facing a state lawmaker, Greg Murphy, who is backed by Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. All 13 Republican congresswomen are supporting Perry, and the race is seen as an early gauge of the party’s diversification strategy.

Other early signs have been underwhelming. As of mid-May, just 38 of 172 declared Republican House challengers were women, according to The Associated Press. On the Democratic side, 84 of 222 declared challengers were women — far smaller than their share of the population, or the party’s base, but a respectable edge over Republicans. In terms of both money and a cohesive plan for advancing women candidates, Republican consultants and candidates acknowledge that they remain outmatched by Democrats.

The party has missed opportunities to raise the profile and influence of women incumbents. Of the seven members of the House Republican leadership, there is only one woman, Liz Cheney, the conference chairwoman. Of the 14 members of the Democratic House leadership, five are women, including the speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

The Senate is similarly skewed. Of the six members of the Republican leadership — seven, if you count the president pro tempore, a post traditionally bestowed on the basis of seniority — one is a woman. On the Democratic side, six of 11 leadership positions are held by women.

Both the NRCC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are led by men. The Democratic campaign committees for both the House and Senate are led by women.

Brooks may well be leaving for purely personal reasons, but Republicans’ difficulties in attracting, elevating and retaining women leaders are systemic. And it’s not just the president who is to blame.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.