Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that Republican women have also been breaking glass ceilings, especially in this year’s election.
Mace told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the 2018 flood of Democratic women elected to Congress inspired GOP women to run, leading them to more than double their numbers in the House.
{mosads}“It’s not just Democrat women who have a monopoly on breaking glass ceilings,” Mace told CNN. “Republican women have been doing it all year long in these elections all across the country.”
Mace also cited GOP women’s success to the fact that the party “had more women running this year.”
“If women want a seat at the table, then we’ve got to raise our hand and say we’re gonna step into the arena, risk it all and we’re gonna run,” she said. “And we have to have more women run to win.”
“We can’t just do this this year in 2020,” she added. “This is something we have to do, especially in the House, every two years.”
CNN’s Dana Bash pointed out that the Democrats still have more women in the House, with at least 89 representatives, while Republicans currently are slated to have at least 28 congresswomen.
“Democrats have just done a better job at recruiting women to run,” Mace said. “I believe the Republican Party – they’ve finally come around.”
“I look at our freshmen class right now, and we really reflect the faces of America – the diversity and the inclusion we have in the Republican Party,” she added. “That is our future, and if we don’t get on board with recruiting the right people – minorities, women, veterans, etc. – then we’re gonna lose in the future.”
Rep.-elect Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told CNN in the dual-interview with Mace that she’s “always known” the GOP is a “big-tent party” that includes women and others from different backgrounds.
“I think what you’re gonna see is a group of individuals who are going to serve as a counterbalance to the values of the socialist squad,” Malliotakis said. “I mean what we stand for are freedom, liberty – we love this nation. We want to see it prevail.”