GOP lacks good funding mechanism for women candidates, says Republican CEO

“The issue is funding them,” Chamberlain, the CEO of Republican Mainstreet Partnership, told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.

“We don’t have a good funding mechanism yet on the GOP, and I do say yet, to get these women up through the primary,” she continued. 

 

“As we know the NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee], they don’t play in primaries, so it’s an organization like mine and a couple of others that do, and we need more help on that moving forward in two years,” she said. 

 

Chamberlain is the only woman in the U.S. serving as the CEO of a major GOP organization. 

 

Her comments come as scores of women are running for office across the country. 

 

However, Democratic women have been more successful at getting through their party’s primaries than their Republican counterparts. 

 

There are currently 15 Democratic women running in Senate races, while there are 8 Republicans running, according to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.

 

Democrats have 187 women running in House races, compared to 52 Republicans running. 

 

“We actually recruited double the number of women in the GOP than we usually have as candidates. Not all of them made it through the primaries, unfortunately, but we don’t get a lot of attention for that because the Democrats have recruited so many,” Chamberlain said. 

 

Despite there being fewer GOP candidates, there are high-profile Republican women running in 2018, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who is seeking reelection. 

 

“I think Elise Stefanik has a bright future ahead of her,” Chamberlain said. “Elise is wonderful. She’s very bright. The men in the GOP respect her a great deal, which is important. 

 

“I think also Mia Love has the potential of also being a leading woman, and then there’s a few older women like [Rep.] Susan Brookes [R-In.], who are fantastic.”