GOP at Risk of Losing Female Senators

4 of 9 are in close races
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 7, 2020 5:17 PM CDT
GOP at Risk of Losing Female Senators
Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., is in a tight race.   (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)

As Election 2020 takes shape, Politico reports that Republicans are in danger of losing a decent portion of their female senators. The GOP currently has nine women in the Senate, but four of them are in close races: Arizona's Martha McSally, Maine's Susan Collins, Georgia's Kelly Loeffler, and Iowa's Joni Ernst. Politico chalks it up to suburban women turning away "from the party in droves out of antipathy" to President Trump, though McSally, for one, disputes that. “I’m a suburban, college-educated woman, so this is my demographic,” she says. Losing some or all of these races would make it difficult for the GOP to retain control of the Senate, not to mention catch up to the Democrats' total of 17 female senators.

“It’s always been ... a traditional weak spot for us,” GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia says. “Our numbers are not obviously as large as the Democrat Caucus, but we’re gaining on them.” Capito also is up for re-election, though she is expected to win. CNN, meanwhile, has better news for Republicans: It finds that a record 55 Republican women have won House primaries this year. However, that may not necessarily translate into a big influx of GOP congresswomen, because many of the primary winners are non-incumbents in competitive general-election races. (More Election 2020 stories.)

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