We can thank Rep. Elise Stefanik, a young New York Republican woman who just won her fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives for a wave of Republican victories. Republicans picked up seats despite the fact we were told the election would be a blue wave election. The newsworthy part of the story is that Republican seats were gained by women, minorities, and veterans. Rep. Stefanik took a leadership role in the aftermath of the 2018 election when Democrats did see a blue wave in the House. A large group of Democrat women won House seats.

The victories of those Democrat women were the toast of the town. The media wrote story after story about them and what a fabulous accomplishment it was to have them in the House. Pelosi took several of them under her wing and gave them some plum committee assignments despite being freshmen members. She put a freshmen Democrat woman from Houston, a Latina, on the House managers team during the Trump impeachment. Have you been reading about the success of the GOP during this election cycle in recruiting and investing in Republican women? There has been very little coverage about it because it goes against the narrative. The media do the bidding of Democrats and to hear them report, there are no women Republicans, just misogynist old white men.

Stefanik made it her mission to find and encourage conservative women to run for office. The results speak for themself. Now both she and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy call Election Night “the night of Republican women”. We may end up with 25 Republican women in the House. And, there is another Republican woman in the Senate, too. Cynthia Lummis defeated Democrat Merav Ben-David in the race for Wyoming’s open US Senate seat. Lummis will become the first woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate. Lummis is a former member of the House.

There were six seats flipped from Democrat to Republican, thanks to these women. The numbers of Democrat pick-ups in the House didn’t happen. The Republican victories surprised the Democrats and their cohorts in the media, thanks to overly optimistic polling and Democrat talking points. Yet, instead of celebrating such success, the news is muted. When Democrat women won in 2018, female news anchors and men gushed and gave them lots of air time. There was a blue wave in Harris County (Houston) in 2018 and a large group of black Democrat women won judicial races. The women were news all across the country and in magazines everywhere. Do you think these freshmen Republican women will be given the cover of magazines and given the star treatment? Don’t hold your breath. If they ignore Republican women then they don’t have to acknowledge the victories.

“It was the night of Republican women,” Stefanik told the Washington Free Beacon. “Despite the media and the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] issuing demeaning comments and saying it wasn’t possible, look at the outcome. We are going to have incredible women who have earned this victory themselves in these districts in the next Congress.”

Republicans may break their previous record of 25 Republican congresswomen in the House, a stunning turnaround for a party that worked to improve its recruitment among minorities and women after it lost control of the lower chamber in 2018. Women played a major role in defeating several high-profile House Democrats. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban-American former TV anchor for Telemundo, defeated Florida Democrat Donna Shalala, a former Clinton White House official. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma and Yvette Herrell of New Mexico also won by ousting freshman Democrats.

I particularly relish the defeat of Donna Shalala, a Clinton administration member who decided she was entitled to a seat in the House after leaving D.C. and going to the academic world.

Don’t expect a million articles in the @washingtonpost describing how angry women are fighting back against being defined as single issue voters, you probably won’t see them on @TIME covers, but here is what you will see, at least a dozen NEW REPUBLICAN female faces in Congress! pic.twitter.com/AOavceYzfk

— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) November 4, 2020

Women are not single-issue voters, though to hear Democrats speak, the only issue that matters is abortion. If abortion is the top priority for Democrats, though, the victories of these women were helped by strong support from pro-life organizations.

The victories doubled the number of pro-life female lawmakers in Congress, according to a count by the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List. The organization, which included races that have yet to be formally called, said that 13 pro-life women won election to the lower chamber and all 11 pro-life female representatives successfully defended their seat. The ascension of pro-life women stands in stark contrast to the 2018 election, which propelled pro-abortion Democrats to power.

“We expect when all votes are counted and the races are called, we will have a record number of pro-life women serving in the next Congress,” Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. “These gains are a repudiation of abortion extremism and further evidence that life is a winning issue in politics.”

Besides the women mentioned above, other Republican women won impressive victories.

Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, who unseated Rep. Scott Tipton in the Republican primary, is best-known as the owner of a pub in which waitresses openly wear firearms. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman from suburban Atlanta who once espoused the controversial QAnon conspiracy theory, won an open congressional seat.

In New York, state Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and former Rep. Claudia Tenney took out Democrat incumbents. Both were strong “law and order” advocates who fought Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s liberal abortion legislation while serving together in the New York State Assembly.

Mary Miller, a businesswoman and farmer, who won the seat of Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. (that was once held by President Abraham Lincoln), by running as an anti-establishment Trump-style Republican; state Sen. Victoria Spartz, a Ukraine-born businesswoman and unabashed free marketeer, who won the Indiana-5 district of retiring moderate Rep. Susan Brooks; and Diana Harshbarger, a millionaire pharmacist and “Trump conservative,” who defeated nine primary opponents to win Tennessee’s heavily Republican 1st District.

Kevin McCarthy said in an interview yesterday that he thinks having President Trump at the top of the ballot helped the women. Unlike in 2018 when Trump wasn’t on the ballot and Democrats were successful, the Republican victories in 2020 were helped by enthusiast Trump voters who wanted to re-elect him. He specifically mentioned the states of New Mexico, Minnesota, Florida, Iowa, and South Carolina as important GOP victories for the House. Trump actually did better with white women in 2020 than he did in 2016. The same is true that Trump did better with married women than Biden (54 – 44). Biden did better with single women (57 – 40).

I'm sure this will drive the cable news conversation: Trump actually did better with white women in 2020 than he did in 2016.

2016: Trump 52-43 Clinton
2020: Trump 55-43 Clintonhttps://t.co/E2n1zuasI9

— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) November 4, 2020

I’ll end with this little fun tweet. Senator Susan Collins was victorious in her race in Maine, though the media and pollsters wrote her off. She did a little celebrating with supporters yesterday. We can all celebrate that the Senate will remain in Republican control, right?

Susan Collins celebrates with a dance to "Still the One." pic.twitter.com/TJzxCAvgUD

— DaybreakInsider (@DaybreakInsider) November 5, 2020