Republican women set sights on Congress

At least 30 running in Texas next year, twice as many as in 2018

AUSTIN — Heavy recruiting of female candidates paid off for Texas Democrats in 2018, but it is Republican women who are making a splash in 2020.

At least 30 Republican women from Texas have filed to run for election to Congress next year, more than twice as many as in the 2018 elections. That year, 13 women ran under the GOP banner while almost three times as many women ran in the Democratic primary, state and party records show.

“If we’re going to have a pink wave, you need to have red in there,” said Nancy Bocskor, a longtime GOP fundraiser who is now director of the Center for Women

in Politics & Public Policy at Texas Woman’s University.

Political strategists say the boost is a reaction to the 2018 election after Democrats made major gains in the suburbs, flipping a dozen Texas House seats and coming within striking distance of defeating several established Republicans in statewide office.

Bocskor likens it to a wake-up call: “They were asleep at the switch, they were not prepared.”

In a state of nearly 28 million people, white men make up the majority of Republican officials representing Texas. Of 24 Republicans in Congress, just one is a woman and one is African American.

Texas Republicans are sensitive about the party’s lack of diversity. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott quickly pulled his endorsement of state Rep. Rick Miller, R-Sugar Land, for suggesting two GOP candidates were running against him because they are “Asian.” Other Republican leaders piled on, and Miller canceled his re-election plans, saying his remarks were a mistake but vowing not to be a distraction in 2020.

In the run-up to next year’s elections, the Texas GOP is planning an aggressive effort to embrace diversity, namely by releasing a series of videos featuring women and candidates of color explaining why they are Republicans. Those details were unveiled last month in a private memo that was leaked from within the party.

James Dickey, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, said the party began its “biggest ever push” in January to attract and equip potential candidates, with training and tools to help them better target voters with blockwalking, phone and text message systems.

“What was different this year was how intentional we were about telling new candidates we welcome them and we are ready, willing and able to support them and we have the resources to do so,” Dickey said.

Women hold 24 percent of the 535 seats in Congress. Today, just six of the 36-member Texas congressional delegation to the House are women — about 17 percent. Five congresswomen are Democrats, and one is Republican.

Texas ranks 40th in the country for the proportion of women in the state Legislature, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. There are so few Republican women in the Texas House that they could all fit into one full-size SUV.

Now is the time for women to run for election, according to a recent study from the Barbara Lee Family Foundation. The group found women running on both sides of the aisle have advantages.

“As Americans express frustration with the political status quo, the perception of women as ‘different’ in a sea of male — mostly white — elected officials and candidates offers them a distinctive advantage in the eyes of voters,” according to the study.

Melissa Esparza-Mathis, 47, is a first-time candidate running as a Republican for Congress. It feels like a good ol’ boys club, she said. She’s running against Rep. Kevin Brady, a Republican from The Woodlands who has served the 8th Congressional District since the 1990s. It’s time for the Republican Party to change, she said.

“It’s like a household — it takes both to navigate what’s important. We both know what’s important, and we both bring something to the table. You can’t just have a male-dominated Republican party because women are bringing issues to the table that were never addressed before,” she said.

Republican women have a “tremendous” advantage over Democratic men, according to the report.

Republican women are perceived better on the economy and taxes and are viewed as political outsiders, confident and honest, the study found. Democratic women are more likely to be viewed as being in touch with people, working across party lines, taking on special interests and having a focus on health care and education compared with Republican men. In both cases, women were not perceived as positively on being strong leaders.

The deadline for candidates to file to run in the March 3 primary was Monday, but final tallies of who has qualified to run for office will likely shift as the Texas Secretary of State’s Office continues to receive the filings of additional candidates from the political parties.