Republicans Have Zero Women Running Battleground State Senate Campaigns
When Republicans try to blame Democrats for the War on Women (see Paul, Rand), it’s important to note that they have no women running Senate campaings in battleground states.
The position of campaign manager is the top job in any run for office, the person who — besides the candidate — is responsible for all the campaigns’ activities. Yet a National Journal survey of the key Senate races of 2014 found that only two out of 33 GOP campaigns had female campaign managers. In states expected to feature the most competitive general-election races, the disparity is even worse: Republicans have zero women running campaigns.
Campaign managers aren’t the end-all, do-all, be-all of campaigns – consultants and other advisers often play a bigger role in crafting a candidate’s message and agenda. But the paucity of women in the top spot has raised fears the party is still ill-equipped to reach women in 2014. Among some female Republican operatives, the frustration is palpable.
“What is disturbing to me is there are not enough senior-level women across the board,” said Katie Packer Gage, a former deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romney who last year established a consulting firm to help Republican candidates talk to female voters. “If you don’t have a person in that spot, then you need to make sure you have that role in your consulting firm, or making your ads. You have to have that voice and it’s not enough to have the candidate’s spouse playing that role.”
“You need to have strong women that can advocate for a different way of looking at things,” she added. “I feel like that is missing.”
