RMC Talks the 2014 Midterm Elections in NYC!

Last night marked our last event for 2014 and it was a great way to wrap up the election season! Thanks to our members and supporters who came out to hear from our outstanding panel. The room was packed, the panelists were on point and thanks to great questions and discussion, the evening was a huge success.  If you missed the event, don’t worry, you can check out our recap below and stay tuned for our year end newsletter with even more highlights:

Our evening kicked off with remarks form our National Board Chair Candy Straight and amazing RMC member Betsy Evans from Connecticut.  Candy and Betsy shared insight into RMC’s work this year including our Focus 54 Conference and lobby efforts to ensure much needed funding for the Title X family planning program. They provided some of the staggering facts about the social and economic impact of reproductive health policy highlighting that:

Over half of all pregnancies in the US are unintended. Nationwide, the public cost of unintended and teen pregnancies approaches $12 billion annually. On the flip side, preventing unplanned pregnancies saves taxpayer dollars. For every $1 spent on publicly-funded contraception, the nation saves roughly $6.

As we heard from Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women in Politics, this was not a record-breaking election year by most measures. But with women running in some of the most hotly contested races nationwide, there is progress being made. There is a record number of Republican women serving in the Senate including Senator-elect mainstream Republican Shelley Moore Capito. And as mainstream Republicans, we know there is more to do.

Join RMC’s efforts – make a contribution today and help ensure RMC PAC and the WISH List Project can start early to support pro-choice Republican women candidates nationwide!

It’s taken almost 100 years to get to 100 women serving in the U.S. House of Representatives — and Republicans are sorely lagging here. We know GOP women need support from the Party and from you – early on.

Marni Allen of Political Parity revealed new information from Political Parity’s new study on the GOP Gender Gap — in the U.S. House, 20 out of 21 committee chairs are held by men. This is a lost opportunity for the Party to showcase women in leadership. We need women in critical roles driving the agenda.

As national pollster Bob Carpenter reminded us about increasing the number of Republican women in Congress: “We did make gains and we should take those gains and build on them.”  Bob shared insight into the unique circumstances this cycle that all came together to lead to GOP victories.  He cautioned, however, that in 2016 the GOP will have more Senate seats up for election and the Party must focus now to turn around the reputation of the do-nothing Congress.

Media strategist Steve Grand provided an insiders’ look at how the main messaging and strategy was developed for many of the key Senate races that lead to the GOP takeover. Showing ads from many races, including one of the most hotly contested US Senate races in Colorado, Steve opened the discussion of how reproductive health policy played a role in this election cycle. There is a major opportunity for pro-choice Republicans to take a leading role in bringing common sense into the debate and securing policies that will help women, families AND taxpayers at the same time.

We are grateful to our outstanding panelists, supporters and attendees. The evening served to solidify RMC’s goals of growing support for of mainstream pro-choice Republicans in Congress who are willing to work across the aisle to advance cost-effective policies that will make a difference for all Americans.

This event really drove home the importance of being vocal and outspoken as mainstream Republicans. Your voices matter! 

>> Did you miss our 2014 Election coverage – Click here to see the final results of key gubernatorial and federal races <<