Gillibrand: No, Dems Didn’t Harp Too Much On So-Called ‘Women’s Issues’

United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat of New York) asks questions of U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey, U.S. Army, as they deliver testim... United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat of New York) asks questions of U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey, U.S. Army, as they deliver testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services on the U.S. policy towards Iraq and Syria and the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Hagel and Dempsey Testify on ISIL, Washington D.C, America - 16 Sep 2014 (Rex Features via AP Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on Wednesday said that discussing policies that women care about did not hurt Democrats in the midterm elections.

“I resent the notion that women shouldn’t be talked to directly about issues we care about,” she said during a Center for American Progress Action Fund event, according to the Huffington Post. “It’s a shame that the range of issues that affect women have been successfully rebranded into this one tight phrase to dust off the shoulder.”

Gillibrand outlined the wide array of Democratic policies that impact women, like access to birth control and equal pay, and said she’d rather call them “family issues.”

After the election, conservatives asserted that Democrats lost the “war on women,” but Gillibrand said Democrats still need to differentiate themselves on these issues.

“Republicans don’t have a branding problem with women, they have policy problem with women,” she said. “Let me be clear: There’s a real difference between the parties on the full range of issues that affect women and their families, so the answer is not to stop talking about these issues.”

According to a Planned Parenthood poll released on Wednesday, talking about women’s issues is helpful to Democrats. Democratic candidates in the Senate battleground states had a significant advantage over Republicans when it came to women’s access to abortion and health care.

Planned Parenthood also found that Republican women favored Democrats by 25 points on access to abortion, but sided with Republican candidates on all other issues.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for chammy chammy says:

    Another one in denial. It’s not a matter of not talking about women’s issues so much as it is a party who does not know how to communicate its message and let’s the other party browbeat them for the positions they do take.

    What a bunch of losers and I refuse to be part of it. I have voted for the past 40+ years but I honestly don’t know how diligent I will be in the future if it means voting for a stupid party

  2. The Dems didn’t talk about “womens’ issues” too much, they talked about other issues too little and too timidly. And whoever was the genius that persuaded Obama to hold off on executive action on immigration allegedly to aid vulnerable red state Dems pretty much owns the election debacle.

  3. You said exactly what I wanted to say. Thank you.

  4. TO ME, IT’s THE TUBe wherE the PENIs goes and AfTER thaT, It’s THE TUbe whERE the BABY coMEs OUt. After thaT, I doN"t want to KNow about women’s ISSUEs. TOo disgusting, UNamerICAN and NOt right WIth JESUS!1!1!!one!!!1!!

  5. Oh, Eustace, you old sweet-talker.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

1 more reply

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for berkshire_boy Avatar for chammy Avatar for arrrrrj Avatar for sniffit Avatar for theghostofeustacetilley Avatar for ronbyers

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: