While Republicans scored a pair of impressive electoral victories in New Jersey and Virginia with solid support among female voters, the events of the last week offer harbingers of serious trouble ahead with the largest swing voter bloc in the country — women.

“Women tend to have a more practical, less ideological way of approaching life and, therefore, approaching politics, and our party doesn’t always take kindly to that,” said former Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference from 2003 to 2007…

“The case in the [23rd District] is a terrific example of what happens when you have a strong, moderate Republican woman on the ticket,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers. “She struggled because the stalwarts of the party turned against her.”…

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), one of the most outspoken feminists in the House, put it more bluntly: “This is a party that doesn’t respect women, a party that doesn’t believe women are equal to men,” she told POLITICO. “I don’t think they attract women to their party,” added Wasserman Schultz. “I think they repulse women.”