House GOP efforts to increase female lawmakers falling flat

The Hill: House Republicans had hoped an aggressive recruitment push during the “year of the woman” would help boost the number of female lawmakers in their conference next year.
But a little more than two months before election day, things haven’t gone as planned. Republicans were successful in recruiting a record-breaking number of women to run for seats across the country, an effort meant to reshape a GOP conference that now includes just 23 women out of 236 members. However, given the political headwinds facing the GOP in this year’s midterms, it appears the party will be fortunate to get voters to back even that many of its female candidates. And in a worst-case scenario, the party could end up having 10 fewer GOP women in the 116th Congress.
“2018 is the year of the woman — except on the Republican side, where the ranks of GOP women are likely to shrink,” said David Wasserman, House editor of The Cook Political Report. “It’s a fairly dire situation for Republican women in the House.”
If every female incumbent and challenger in a competitive race comes out on top this fall, the GOP could have 20 to 25 women in their conference next year, according to an analysis done by The Hill.
That would give the party around the same number of Republican women in the House that they currently have, though if there are fewer Republicans overall next Congress, congresswomen could make up a slightly larger percentage of the entire conference.
Everything would have to go the GOP’s way, however, for that rosy scenario to come to fruition, and the reality is that Republicans are facing an uphill battle this fall.
If a blue wave materializes, GOP women could see their ranks shrink to somewhere between 10 and 15 members in the lower chamber, according to The Hill’s analysis.
Of the 65 Republican women who are still in the running, nearly two dozen are locked in competitive races, including Reps. Barbara Comstock (Va.), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) and Mimi Walters (Calif.).
And there are roughly 30 female GOP candidates who are competing in safe Democratic districts where there is little chance of them being elected, while a number of challengers still need to get through their primary to make it on the ballot this fall.
“The Republican Party has a tendency to like to recruit women to run in very tough races, which is probably smart because I think we have a lot of talented women who are probably the only ones that could win those races,” GOP strategist Liz Mair told The Hill, using Comstock as an example.
“But with that being said, the fact that we have a tendency to recruit women into these tough races also means that they could be the ones who end up getting pounded the hardest in November.”