RNC chairman: More emphasis needed on female candidates

Republican National Committee Chairman (RNC) Reince Priebus promised a panel on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday that his party would make a stronger effort to shine a spotlight on its female candidates.

{mosads}“I think that we have done a good job of making sure that we’re recruiting both female candidates and campaign managers,” he said. “But the one thing we’ve done a pretty bad job of is bragging on it and getting women out there.”

Priebus said the Republican Party would “absolutely” work to empower female candidates. This election cycle, a number of Republican female candidates have strong shots at victory. Those include Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who’s running for Senate in West Virginia, Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and House candidates Mia Love in Utah and Barbara Comstock in Virginia.

Democrats have worked to build a national narrative that women don’t support the GOP’s policies on issues like birth control, equal pay and abortion. But Priebus said that Democrats are “overplaying their cards on this war on women, and it’s backfiring on them all over the country.”

That narrative has been a strong dynamic in Colorado, where Democrats have been criticized for hammering Rep. Cory Gardner (R), who’s challenging Sen. Mark Udall (D), on women’s issues.