The Republican National Committee announced Wednesday it is launching an initiative “designed to advance the role of women within our party.”
Chairman Reince Priebus will help kick off the initiative at a news conference on Friday in Washington along with a handful of female lawmakers, including Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Diane Black (R-TN), and Lynn Jenkins (R-KS).
The initiative is called Women on the Right UNITE and was described in a news release as “a joint project to promote the recruitment of and support for Republican women and women candidates.”
The news release came the same day as a Republican lawmaker in Texas compared state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) and her allies to terrorists.
The “Women on the Right UNITE” effort, in other words, is likely to run into occasional stumbling blocks. Its launch, for example, comes on the heels of restrictive legislation, insulting rhetoric, unnecessary medical procedures, inexplicable rhetoric on rape, opposition to pay equity, and antiquated views on gender roles.
But I’m sure Reince Priebus has thought about all of this and has a compelling vision to overcome these issues. I’m especially interested, by the way, in Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) playing a leadership role in this project. She is, after all, the same far-right lawmaker who opposes pay-equity measures for women, and voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. But now she’ll help the RNC “advance the role of women” with the party. Given the failures of the last Republican initiative on this — remember “Young Guns: Women Up”? — I’ll look forward to seeing what Blackburn & Co. come up with.
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