GOP candidate thinks Democratic women in Congress should be ‘grounded’

The GOP’s messaging strategy for 2020 grows clearer by the day: Use the many women of color who were elected to join the House Democratic caucus in 2018 to scare the prominently white and male Republican base to the polls.

The latest example of this strategy comes from Lynne Homrich, a wealthy former Home Depot executive who is self-funding her bid for the GOP nomination in a competitive House seat in Georgia’s 7th District.

In a campaign ad, Homrich shows footage of House Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, taking some of their comments out of context to make them look “scary” to the voters Homrich needs to win a primary in this district.

“That’s the best they can do in Washington?” Homrich says. “If your kids behaved like these women, you’d ground them. If they worked in your business, you’d fire them. We need more women in office with conservative values, common sense and real-world experience.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQQ3GFkOgAc

The “things” Homrich thinks the Democratic women should be “grounded” for include: refusing to fund Trump’s unpopular border wall, criticizing the harmful parts of capitalism, and cursing.

But Homrich has nothing to say about Trump’s bad behavior — which includes a lot more than just cursing.

Trump does routinely use curse words like “fucked” and “bullshit” in public as well as in private. But he was also caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women by grabbing them by the “pussy.” Trump has also committed adultery on multiple occasions — and was implicated in a criminal campaign finance scheme because he paid for the silence of porn actresses to keep the American electorate from hearing about it.

Glossing over Trump’s misdeeds is nothing new for Republicans, who have allowed Trump to escape consequences for his actions ever since the 2016 campaign.

But now, Republicans like Homrich are trying to express outrage at Democrats’ personal conduct for political gain — and adding a more sinister twist by singling out the women of color in the Democratic Party to exploit racist and sexist resentments in the Republican base.

As of now, it’s unclear whether the strategy will work.

But Homrich is trying to test it in Georgia’s 7th District — a once reliably Republican seat in the Atlanta suburbs that swung hard toward Democrats in 2018, in part due to voters’ disgust with Trump and his conduct.

Homrich is hoping to succeed GOP Rep. Rob Woodall, who announced he is not running for reelection after coming dangerously close to losing his seat in 2018. Woodall defeated his Democratic opponent, Carolyn Bourdeax, by just 400 votes.

By running, Homrich is also attempting to add more women to the GOP ranks. While the 2018 midterms saw a historic number of women get elected to Congress, Republicans actually lost women from their House conference.

And to accomplish her goal, Homrich is trying to put down other women.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.