Published November 17, 2020
Republicans have long been under scrutiny because of the relatively small number of GOP women and minorities holding House and Senate seats. The recent election, however, has changed everything, as a record number of Republican women and minorities take their seats in the House.
At least 33 House Republicans will be either women or non-White when the new body sits in January. This includes 27 women, six Hispanics, and two Black men, Burgess Owens of Utah and Byron Donalds of Florida. They come from all regions of the country and represent urban, suburban and rural seats.
In fact, every seat Republicans have flipped from blue to red has been captured by a woman or a minority. This wasn’t an accident. Aided by efforts by the National Republican Congressional Committee and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), GOP officials strenuously tried to recruit capable female and non-White candidates for as many pickup opportunities as possible. These efforts could bear even more fruit, as two other women and one Hispanic — Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa, Claudia Tenney in New York and Mike Garcia in California — might still win the seats they are contesting. Three other female or non-White candidates put on competitive races against first-term Democratic representatives.
Click here to read the rest of this piece at the Washington Post’s website.
Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
