The leading Nevada Republican who bragged that the GOP didn’t have to worry about young or minority voters this year doesn’t want his party to forsake women.
Pat Hickey, the Republican Assembly leader in Nevada, offered up some advice Sunday on Twitter, urging his fellow members to change their approach to female voters:
Dear Republicans: 53% of voters are women. And we poll terribly about “caring about issues that affect women.” Shall we change? We’d better.
— Pat Hickey (@PatHickeyNevada) March 9, 2014
GOP needs to learn how to talk to women. Need to know “what” they feel–but also, “why” they feel the way they do.
— Pat Hickey (@PatHickeyNevada) March 9, 2014
Tips for Republicans messaging to women: Validate. Show empathy. Use stories (example: about the failure of Obamacare). Find common ground.
— Pat Hickey (@PatHickeyNevada) March 9, 2014
But in an interview last year, Hickey dispensed no such wisdom on how his party can win over two other voting blocs that largely favor Democrats, predicting that 2014 will be “a great year for Republicans” because “[a] lot of minorities, a lot of younger people will not turn out in a non-presidential.”
He tried to clarify his remarks in a subsequent interview.
“What I was trying to say, in Nevada, historically, off presidential years have historically been lower turnout models,” Hickey said.
Nevada Democrats wasted little time highlighting the contrast between his candid remarks last year and his tips on how to win the support of women.
“Pat Hickey (yes, that Pat Hickey) has some advice for Republican candidates on ‘how to talk to women,'” Zach Hudson, a spokesman for the Nevada Democrats, wrote in an email blast. “Apparently it involves being patronizing.”
