Why We Need More Republicans, and Republican Women, to Run for Office
By Liz Matory
When fellow Republican grassroots advocate Brigitta Mullican recently asked me if I knew anyone who wasn’t currently a candidate, who would be willing to give women advice about running for office at an upcoming event, I said I would be willing to do so. At that time, I did not intend to run for anything in 2018. In fact, I had reservations about re-entering potentially hostile territory, but I thought that my experience as a Democrat, independent and Republican candidate could be helpful for the women in our county.
Since Brigitta was our Montgomery County Federation of Republican Women liaison to the Women’s Legislative Briefing (WLB), an annual, allegedly non-partisan event sponsored by the Montgomery County government, she rightfully advocated to have more non-Democrat representation at a panel discussion during this year’s event, given the propensities of our county’s political situation. So, I agreed to participate because I love to encourage more people to take on the system, especially “non-traditional” candidates. However, if it weren’t for the two dozen Republican women who were there for moral support, I don’t know what I would have done.
One thing is crystal clear after participating in that supposedly non-partisan panel to encourage more women to run for office: a Republican must run for State Senate in Legislative District 16 against Susan Lee. The reason that our meeting room was packed to capacity that day was that the attendees all wanted to get some honest, sober advice about campaigns, but it appeared that from her very first statement, the Democrat senator had a different agenda altogether – BASH PRESIDENT TRUMP. Apparently, it was the overriding theme of every breakout session that day, and we Republican women definitely noticed.
After every question (How do you run for office? Is fundraising difficult?) for every topic (What position should you consider? When is the right time to declare your candidacy?), like a computer program, Lee’s answers began and ended with bashing Trump. Even non-Republican women noticed how partisan and anti-Trump she had made the discussion that afternoon. After all, with so few women candidates elected in our county and state, the lack of representation had nothing to do with our current duly elected commander-in-chief.
My experience that day also revealed how adept the Left had become in covering up its hyper-partisan activities by creating random non-partisan “organizations” that claim to not be political, but have a stark and staunch agenda.
The Commission on Women states that its “primary focus is to improve women’s lives by identifying inequities in laws, policies, practices and procedures, and providing recommendations that promote remedies,” but the most prominent sponsors of their event are all pro-abortion organizations. You can tell what is considered most important to the Commission. While the exhibit tables for most groups are around the corner or stuck in a random room, the pro-abortionists received the highly coveted tables next to the registration area and the main conference hall.
While the Left wants to claim that this is the “Year Of The Women” in order to counteract Trump’s presidency, they forget that women are Republicans too!
The only thing we can do as the minority party is have a strong challenger at the county level. After all, the county government here in Montgomery is extremely powerful. But since 70+% voters voted for term limits, we as a party must encourage more qualified and engaging candidates who are willing to fight this Goliath.
I admit that by residing in the second most progressive legislative district in the state, I am now too conservative for that area. But there may be a few more Republicans who can make a better case for Montgomery County voters.
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Please do. We are here to provide a strong measure of party support for you.