There is no denying that Donald Trump’s election and Hillary Clinton’s defeat hit a troubling nerve for a lot of women in this country. The reaction started with the Women’s March the weekend of Trump’s inauguration, developed into on-the-ground organizing all over America, and led to a historic number of women running for office. If a blue wave materializes this November, it will be a direct result of this mobilization of women.
All of that is why I found a new scorecard and campaign that launched this week to be very interesting. American Bridge and UltraViolet PAC published a list of the 15 members of congress who are “Worst for Women.” To compile the list, they rated them on these votes:
Repeal the Affordable Care Act
For the GOP tax scam
Defund Planned Parenthood and dismantle Title X
Against raising the minimum wage
For an unconstitutional ban on nearly all abortions after 20 weeks without a full exception for the health of the mother
One of the things I love about that list is that only two of the five items (defunding Planned Parenthood and banning abortions after 20 weeks) deal exclusively with women. But in their descriptions of these issues, they note things, like the fact that two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women.
Here are the members of congress who made the list:
- Rep. Don Bacon (Kara Eastman))
- Rep. Dave Brat (Abigail Spanberger)
- Rep. Ted Budd (Kathy Manning)
- Sen. Ted Cruz (Beto O’Rourke))
- Rep. Ron DeSantis (running for governor, primary on 8/28)
- Rep. Glen Grothman (Dan Kohl))
- Rep. Karen Handel (Lucy McBath)
- Sen. Dean Heller (Jacky Rosen)
- Rep. Jim Jordan (Janet Garrett)
- Rep. Steve King (J.D. Scholten)
- Rep. Jason Lewis (Angie Craig)
- Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Tatiana Matta)
- Rep. Steve Pearce (running for governor against Michelle Lujan Grisham)
- Rep. Pete Sessions (Colin Allred))
- Rep. Scott Taylor (Elaine Luria)
You’ll notice that Karen Handel is the only woman who made the cut, while Cruz and Heller are the only senators. I’m particularly grateful that they included my own representative, Jason Lewis, who has a remarkable anti-woman history. Pete Sessions is another name that regular Monthly readers have been learning a lot about lately.
For those of you who might be interested in something more than just that list, I have included the names of the Democratic nominee in parenthesis. What is perhaps most interesting is that 10 of the candidates who are “worst for women” will face a female opponent this November. I hope you’ll all make good use of that information.
