The national GOP has named 4th Congressional District candidate Mia Love as one of their top women candidates for the 2014 election.
Roll Call reports Love, along with 9 other candidates, were highlighted on Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. as their best hopes for expanding the number of Republican women in Congress.
Love, along with California’s Mimi Walters and Virginia’s Barbara Comstock, is expected to easily win her election in November. If those three emerge victorious, the number of Republican women in the House will grow by one.
The complete list of featured women candidates looks like this:
- Retired Air Force Colonel Martha McSally, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Ron Barber in Arizona’s 2nd District.
- State Sen. Mimi Walters, who is facing marginal opposition in the open-seat race for California’s 45th District.
- Former Iowa Department of Public Health Director Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the GOP nominee to challenge Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, in the Hawkeye State’s 2nd District.
- State Corporation Commissioner Patrice Douglas, who is in a runoff for the GOP nomination in the open-seat race in Oklahoma’s 5th District.
- Former White House staffer Elise Stefanik, who is the GOP nominee in the open-seat race for New York’s 21st District.
- Former Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love, the GOP nominee in Utah’s 4th District.
- Virginia Del. Barbara Comstock, the GOP nominee in Virginia’s 10th District.
- Former Rep. Nan Hayworth, the GOP nominee to take on Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., in the 18th District.
- Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Wendy Rogers, who is in a competitive primary in Arizona’s 9th District, the winner of which will challenge Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
- State Rep. Darlene Senger, the GOP nominee to challenge Democratic Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois’ 11th District.
There are currently 19 women in the House Republican conference. But House Republicans started this election year with a net loss of two female members: Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is running for Senate, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., planned to retire.
Amid an environment where Democrats relentlessly branded the GOP as hostile to women voters the party initiated “Project GROW,” which aimed to help female candidates and support outreach to female voters. The program had some rocky moments earlier this year.Project GROW bet on two Florida special election candidates who were unable to win their primaries. And four additional female candidates lost open-seat House primary races in Georgia, West Virginia, and California.
