Can Republicans bridge the gender gap?

However, GOP strategist Liesl Hickey says Republican incumbents, especially those in suburban districts, should not give up on women voters. Hickey, the former executive director of the NRCC knows a lot about running and winning in suburban districts. I first met Liesl in 2000, when she was working on Mark Kirk’s first campaign for the suburban Chicago’s 10th CD. Liesl helped him get re-elected in 2006; a particularly awful year for House GOP members. She now advises and produces advertising for GOP candidates in suburban districts across the country.

This June, she conducted dozens of one-on-one interviews with independent and Republican-leaning women voters in suburban battleground counties. What she found was that “they can dislike Trump, but still vote for a Republican member of Congress.” These women, says Hickey, are “open and willing to hear an argument” from GOP candidates.

What they see in Washington is dysfunction, disagreement and division. What they want to see is “people working across the aisle,” and “having conversations” instead of shouting matches and scorched earth politics. The message to these voters, she says, is one that emphasizes “integrity, character and honesty and putting country first.”