Lost amid the post-Election rancor was an important fact: Women – particularly Republican women – gained ground in the downstream races. There are 142 women serving in the 117th Congress, up from a then-record 127 serving on Election Day 2020. The entire net gain came from Republican women, who now have 37 in Congress, compared with 22 on Election Day 2020, according to data compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. I was particularly pleased that a record-setting 18 non-incumbent Republican women won House seats in 2020, compared with only one in 2018, giving the party 29 Republican women in the House, compared with 13 two years ago. In addition, nine GOP women flipped seats from the Democrat column in eight states, with a 10th provisionally seated. Women from both parties now hold 94 statewide seats, compared with 90 before Election Day. As happy as I am with the gains Republican women made, women in general still make up only a quarter of the 535 seats in the House and the Senate. So where do we go from here? Much of the speculation going into Election Day focused on white suburban women, although the definition of that group remains squishy. Former President Trump won handily among white women without college degrees, but President Biden won white women with college degrees by a similar margin. That will be a key battleground area across the country over the next 18 months. But University of Delaware Associate Professor Erin Cassese believes the real story was more about “Black women’s activism, Black women’s organizing.” In Georgia, Stacey Abrams and others led efforts that resulted in more than 800,000 new voter registrations, with Abrams telling NPR that 45% of those new voters were under the age of 30 and just under half were people of color. What does that say? With Black women demonstrating they’re what CNBC described as the “Democratic Party’s most loyal voting group,” the Republican party needs to figure out how to attract more to our side as we navigate the Road to the 2022 Midterms. There are now 51 women of color in Congress but only six of them are Republicans. Four are freshmen: Nicole Malliotakas of New York; Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida; and Michelle Steel and Young Kim of California. And two, Jaime Herrera Beutler and Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, were re-elected from Washington state and Puerto Rico, respectively. Of those 51 women of color, only three are Senators (and none are Republican). Both sides need to work on that. The Republican Party is now turning its focus to restoring our majorities in the House and Senate, while Democrats are already focusing on protecting their thin margins. The party of the president loses on average 25 House seats during the midterms, according to Gallup. We want to build on the record number of female Republican candidates we had at the start of the last election cycle -- 227 filed to run for House seats and 23 for the Senate. Much of the credit for our success in drafting a more diverse slate of candidates goes to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a Republican Main Street Partnership member. Some of these candidates scored key upsets, while others defeated well-funded Democratic challengers in what many considered at-risk seats. While I’m excited by the gains and pleased by the New York Times’ description of the “ascendant night for Congressional Republicans,” you can’t ignore the fact that we’re making up for recent losses, particularly in 2018. We need to maintain the momentum AND find a way to reverse the trend of both parties electing candidates from the Far Left and Far Right, which we believe is a formula for continued gridlock and dysfunction. We are looking for moderates who are willing to cross the aisle and find solutions to the historic challenges that face us. We also need to think more about why women vote and for whom. Notre Dame Political Science Professor Christina Wolbrecht told the Washington Post that the causes of the gender gap are rarely the issues that are most often associated with women voters, such as abortion rights and sexual harassment. She believes that women are more likely than men to favor government involvement in health care and education, for example. To capture more of the women’s vote, Republican candidates need to be prepared to address these issues directly. One more thing: Once women are in office, we’re performing well. The Washington Post published an op-ed in January by researchers from Duke University and the University of California, Irvine, that says state and federal studies indicate that women are more active and productive than their male counterparts on a variety of policy-related activities. They sponsor more legislation and are more effective at moving bills through the legislative process and bringing more money to their districts. And the authors’ own proprietary research says women stand out in constituent service, based on inquiries they made to state legislators and the responses they received. As candidates, legislators, and voters, women—including women of color—hold the future of the Republican party in their hands. We can either embrace their participation and recapture majorities in the House and Senate or we can turn away and risk finishing perennially in second place.

Congressman Pete Stauber (MN-08) is leading the push to reintroduce bipartisan legislation that would expand our nation’s workforce by investing more than $3.5 billion over a five-year period to increase access to registered apprenticeships, youth apprenticeships, and pre-apprenticeships. Stauber joined with nine other #RMSP members and 91 members of Congress in reintroducing a bill that passed the House in the 116th Congress with a vote of 246-140. He described the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021 (H.R. 447) by saying, “As our nation works to accelerate our economy, it has become more important than ever to support the trades. By increasing access to the successful registered apprenticeship program, this legislation will allow more workers to earn while they learn and will deliver more job opportunities during a difficult time. Northern Minnesota has several upcoming projects in mining, healthcare, construction, and other sectors. This vote was a critical step in ensuring these important projects move forward seamlessly. Therefore, I was proud to help advance legislation that will unleash the economic engine in our communities, close the skills gap and help middle class Americans succeed.” Other RMSP members who have signed on as co-sponsors are Representatives Don Bacon, Mike Bost, Brian Fitzpatrick, Andrew Garbarino, John Katko, Adam Kinzinger, David McKinley, and Pete Stivers. To read more...

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst and Independent Women's Forum President Carrie Lukas wrote an op-ed for Fox News on ways to help women get their jobs back who've lost them during the pandemic. This op-ed reinforces a recent column Republican Main Street Partnership Sarah Chamberlain wrote on how disproportionately this crisis has hit women and, in particular, women of color. To read Sen. Ernst and Carrie Lukas's column, go here:

It’s difficult to disagree with Jasmine Tucker, the director of research for the National Women’s Law Center, who told Fortune magazine last week that “If white men’s unemployment rates were as high as Black and Latino women’s, we would have done something about it already.” It’s also difficult to disagree with sociologist and Indiana University professor Jessica Calarco, who said in November 2020 that “other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women.” First, some context. The U.S. economy gained a net 49,000 jobs in January. On the surface, that’s OK news. But beneath the surface, this pandemic continues to be horrific for working women. More than 2.3 million women have left the labor force since last February and nearly 80% of the U.S. adults who stopped working or looking for work last month are women. To be fair, nearly 1.8 million men have left the labor force since last February, but their employment base is well higher. The overall unemployment rate fell to 6.3% in January, but it rose to 8.5% for Black women age 20 and older. I’ve written about this phenomenon a few times in Forbes magazine HERE and HERE, but the government revised its earlier estimates of December job losses and said women lost 196,000 jobs and the net job losses were 227,000, up from 156,000 and 227,000, respectively. There’s pain across the board, but women are bearing the brunt of the damage. The unemployment rate for Hispanic women in January stood at 8.6%, exactly double where it was a year ago and unemployment for Asian women stood at 6.6%, more than double the 3.1% level in January 2020. And the labor force participation rate – which tracks the share of the population either working or looking for jobs – is down 2.1 percentage points from last year for women 16 and older, compared with a 1.8-percentage-point drop for men. This ongoing employment crisis has disproportionately hurt the women of color who disproportionately work in restaurants, retail, education, health care, and other “essential” businesses. They are often paid low wages, are in jobs where they often can’t work remotely, and are normally responsible for overseeing remote learning and other childcare duties. Congress needs to end the rhetoric around President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill and focus on governing. Despite the reasonableness of the counter-proposal by 10 Republican Senators – including three of our members -- it appears that President Biden has the votes to bypass Republican naysayers and pass his bill. Republicans need to make the best of a tough situation and focus on some compromises that will make the bill more palatable to our side of the aisle and not leave us as the “bad guys” in the eyes of Americans who are hurting. We need effective, permanent policies that support women’s work and caregiving in the long term, including creating a robust care infrastructure; ensuring fair and equal wages and quality benefits; and creating strong workplace protections. We need forward-looking solutions that overcome the status quo and stop damaging women’s progress and U.S. economic growth. The truth is that the pandemic has only exacerbated a larger problem. In 2018, 21.4 million women lived in poverty and nearly 11 million children – 14.4% of all children under age 18 – lived in poverty in 2019. A big reason for this is the continuing undervaluation of women’s work in terms of type of work and the persistent gender wage gap. I read an interesting report from Diana Boesch and Shilpa Phadke at the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress. While their organization is admittedly a left-leaning think tank, their recommendations do fall under the category of our advocacy of Republicans looking for opportunities to cross the aisle and find solutions to kitchen-table issues: Extend and expand unemployment benefits beyond the current March 14, 2021, expiration to last through the end of the pandemic, including weekly supplements to woefully insufficient state benefit amounts. Protect and compensate essential workers. Reinstate and expand emergency paid leave to guarantee all workers have access through the end of the pandemic. Increase relief funding for the child-care industry to $50 billion. Provide Americans with meaningful stimulus checks, especially dependent adults and others who were excluded from the recent $600 checks. Provide direct funding aid to state and local governments. Increase spending and support for vaccine distribution. Provide strong protections against evictions and foreclosures, as well as relief for rent. At the Republican Main Street Partnership, we’re focusing on that message that rhetoric is easy but governing is difficult. As the COVID-19 relief bill (and other legislation) goes through Congress in the weeks to come, we need to be part of the solution, not a millstone that slows down or derails the process. We should be advocating for a more targeted approach to stimulus checks and create a lower threshold for disbursement while not forgetting that people making good money in 2019 may now be on unemployment or are underemployed. We need to think about the commercial and residential landlords, who are having to pay the banks, who also need some consideration. We need to make sure that expanded benefits are not a disincentive to looking for a job – which likely includes more job training and retraining programs – and focused efforts to reopen businesses. And we need to reopen schools safely to eliminate the barriers for women to full-time work. I’d love your thoughts on these recommendations and what Republican lawmakers need to do to make sure they’re not left behind as the freight train pulls out of the station. You can also go here to support our efforts to win back Republican seats in Congress in this next election cycle. Photo credit: Brookings Institution

The Republican Main Street Partnership, a moderate GOP group that has supported efforts to repudiate the party's fringe before, is making its pitch in the fight for the future of the party with new plans to spend $25 million on congressional races this cycle. The group is also releasing its post-election examination of the 2020 cycle to members and allies — an assessment that lays out its argument for a post-Donald Trump GOP as a party that can harness the frustration of some voters while attracting suburban and minority voters in the process. Read the rest of the story here:

Over the past few weeks, Republican Main Street Partnership members have been announcing their appointments to new committee and leadership roles and, in some cases, highlighting committees they will be continuing to serve on. As noted below, some of our Freshmen members (F) are receiving their initial committee assignments. Rep. Troy Balderson (OH-12): House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rep. Cliff Bentz (OR-02)(F): House Judiciary Committee and House Natural Resources Committee Rep. John Curtis (UT-03): House Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25): Defense and State and Foreign Operations Subcommittees on Appropriations. Continues to serve as Ranking Member of the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Subcommittee. Rep. Randy Feenstra (IA-04)(F): House Agriculture Committee, House Committee on the Budget, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Andrew Garbarino (NY-02)(F): Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation. Also serving on the House Committee on Small Business and the House Homeland Security Committee. Rep. Bob Gibbs (OH-7): Outside conferee for the bicameral Conference Committee on the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021. Gibbs is the ranking member for the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (FL-26): House Science, Space, and Technology Committee; House Homeland Security Committee; and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Also named Assistant Whip for House Republican Committee. Rep. Dusty Johnson (SD-AL): House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and House Agriculture Committee Rep. Young Kim (CA-39)(F): House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; House Foreign Affairs; and House Small Business Committee. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11)(F): House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Also named Assistant Whip for House Republican Conference. Rep. Lisa McClain (MI-10)(F): House Armed Services Committee Rep. Blake Moore (UT-01)(F): House Committee on Natural Resources and House Armed Services Committee Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04): House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration; Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies; and Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch. Also named Assistant Whip for the House Republican Conference. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14): House Appropriations Committee, including assignments on the Military Construction and Veteran Affairs; Homeland Security; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development subcommittees. Rep. Maria Salazar (FL-27)(F): House Committee on Small Business and House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-16): House Committee on Ways and Means Rep. Fred Upton (MI-06): House Energy Subcommittee Republican Leader Rep. David Valadao (CA-21)(F): House Appropriations Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. “Main Street Partnership members are doing the hard work of governing rather than participating in divisive rhetoric,” said CEO Sarah Chamberlain. “They’re rolling up their sleeves to address the important kitchen-table issues that impact working Americans and reaching across the aisle to move legislation from bill to law.”

By Sarah Chamberlain, President and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership Somewhere deep in our national soul, we remain nostalgic for the metaphor of Main Street as the epitome of what’s right about the United States. But the political extremism that we’re seeing from both parties — and the challenges that our Main Street merchants are facing as a result of the pandemic — have resulted in an environment that threatens our democracy. Renewing the American experiment in self-government depends on three strong foundations: Equity requires a commitment to equal opportunity, the impartial rule of law, and shared access to essential services like affordable health care, quality education, and childcare for working families. Security exists when we respect and grow our alliances with allies abroad and make targeted investments in our communities at home, along with a shared understanding that violence in any form is never acceptable. Prosperity results from a commitment to low taxes, free markets, limited government, access to capital, and targeted investments in workforce training, infrastructure, and transportation. Read more... Published by the USA Today Network on 1/25/2021

Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH) has joined Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) in introducing the Protecting Seniors From Emergency Scams Act (H.R. 446), legislation that directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to report to Congress on the number and types of scams targeting seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic and make recommendations for how to prevent scams targeting seniors during the pandemic and future emergencies. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. Senate last week. “Throughout the pandemic, uncertainty has led to many Ohioans falling victim to scam callers – especially vulnerable populations like seniors,” said Balderson. “We have a responsibility to stop bad actors like these scam artists in their tracks, and that starts with empowering the American people with information about known scam calls.” To read more...

Source: Forbes, Sarah Chamberlain This is the third of four articles about issues that the President-Elect and 117th Congress need to be prioritizing as it relates to equity for women and families. As I noted in my Dec. 18 column on safe and stable housing, we need to talk about how we can ensure everyone can live and work free from discrimination based on sex. My Dec. 30 column focused on removing barriers to workplace equality for women. In this column, I’ll be looking at eliminating sexual harassment and assault in our nation’s schools. I’ve written a few columns in recent months about the deteriorating job outlook for women and December 2020 wasn’t any better. The United States lost 140,000 net jobs in December and women lost 156,000 of them (that’s right, men gained 16,000). Job losses have been particularly steep across women-dominated sectors like education, hospitality, and retail. Looking back at the full length to date of the pandemic, 5.4 million women have lost their jobs, and 2.1 million have dropped out entirely, due in large part to the need to be home with their kids because they’re not in school. And as I’ve pointed out, Black and Latina women have been hit much harder than white men and women... Read More

Source: Fox News, Marisa Schultz Rep.-elect Young Kim, who flipped a blue California House seat for the GOP, brings to Washington a keen understanding of the U.S. immigration system from her work as a longtime congressional staffer and her personal journey of becoming an American citizen. She knows that the system needs to be fixed. Kim immigrated to the United States from South Korea at age 12 thanks to the family-based immigration system that President Trump had wanted to eliminate. She supports the so-called "chain migration" program and wants to work across the aisle to improve the immigration system by being both fair and compassionate... Read More

Source: Forbes, Sarah Chamberlain This is the second in a series of four articles on issues that the President-Elect and 117th Congress need to be prioritizing as it relates to equity for women and families. As I noted in my Dec. 18 column on safe and stable housing, we need to talk about how we can ensure everyone can live and work free from discrimination based on sex, and that includes undoing some damage that has been imposed over the past few years. I’d like to talk today about removing barriers to workplace equality for women. As I wrote in mid-November, the outlook has been grim for women and isn’t improving. Distress can be found in nearly every corner of the labor market, but the pain is not evenly distributed. Joblessness among minority groups was significantly higher in November than the 5.9% rate for whites: 10.3% of Blacks, 8.4% of Hispanics and 6.7% of Asians were unemployed... Read More

Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), alongside Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Bob Casey (D-PA), announced Dec. 20 that their Combat Online Predators Act was signed into law. “I am thrilled to see that our Combat Online Predators Act has been signed into law. Our legislation will protect the most vulnerable among us while online,” said Fitzpatrick. “The Zezzo family’s hard work has paid off, and will protect so many children and families. We must continue the great work that has been done so far, and continue the fight for justice for all victims and make the world a safer place for future generations.” The Combat Online Predators Act was inspired by the story of the Zezzo family of Bucks County, Pennsylvania whose teenage daughter was cyber-stalked by a friend’s father on social media. Despite the stalking being sexual in nature, the then-51-year-old stalker pleaded guilty to only a misdemeanor stalking charge and was sentenced to probation and counseling. Three years later, the same stalker began making contact with the young girl again. This time, he was arrested in a sting by local police and sentenced to between 18 months and seven years in state prison. This legislation provides enhanced criminal penalties for stalkers under Title 18 Section 2261 by up to five years if the victim is a minor. Furthermore, the legislation calls for the Attorney General and Department of Justice to produce an evaluation of Federal, State, and local efforts to enforce laws relating to stalking and identify and describe elements of these enforcement efforts that constitute best practices.