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Women’s History Month: RNC Under Fire in RI & OH for Snubbing Women Candidates

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This Women’s History Month, the RNC is snubbing not one but two GOP women candidates for governor. In Rhode Island, State House Minority Leader Patricia Morgan is up this week with a new ad calling out the RNC for its implicit endorsement of her primary opponent, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung. And in Ohio, the RNC just received authorization to spend money on behalf of Attorney General Mike DeWine in his primary campaign against Lt. Governor Mary Taylor.
“Patricia Morgan is the latest victim of the RNC’s shameful but unsurprising attempts to put its finger on the scale to undermine women candidates in Republican primaries,” said DGA Press Secretary Melissa Miller. “The women of Rhode Island, Ohio, and the United States deserve better than the Republicans’ old boys club.”

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BACKGROUND
RI: Morgan’s Campaign Attacked the RNC for Press Release Omitting Morgan and Supporting Fung as GOP “Challenger” to Raimondo. According to the Providence Journal, “Asked about the image of the Washington Monument and the term “D.C. insiders,″ Morgan’s new campaign spokesman Bryan Piligra said: ‘The Washington Monument is used as symbolism of D.C. and the political establishment, who are starting to muck around in this primary. GOP voters need only look to the RNC press release … touting only Fung against Raimondo, and referring to him as ‘her Republican challenger.’ Last time we checked, Allan hasn’t earned that distinction from GOP voters.’” [Providence Journal, 3/14/18]
OH: Ohio Republican Party Leaders Authorized the Republican National Committee to Give Financial Assistance to Mike DeWine Over Taylor. According to the Canton Repository, “In fact, state party leaders last week authorized the Republican National Committee to add financial assistance to DeWine’s campaign before the GOP primary. Under party rules, the move can be requested by state members of the national organization; giving their OK last Friday were Chair Jane Timken and national committee members Jo Ann Davidson and Jim Dicke.” [Canton Repository, 3/10/18]

  • Canton Repository Editorial: Dismissal of Taylor Raised Gender Issues in GOP and was “Politically Tone Deaf.” According to a Canton Repository Editorial, “DeWine and Husted already have taken some heat as the only major-party ticket without a woman running for either governor or lieutenant governor. To dismiss Taylor so abruptly and give her (or the Democrats) another opening to raise gender as an issue against the Republican Party seems, if nothing else, as politically tone deaf.” [Canton Repository Editorial, 2/11/18]
  • Taylor Called Ohio Republican Party a “Good-Old Boy” Club. According to a Canton Repository Editorial, “Taylor called the assembled Republican leadership gathering ‘Mike DeWine’s living room’ and said in concluding her heated remarks: ‘I’m not asking for your endorsement here today. With all of the good-old-boy bullying and backroom deals that have been struck to get us here … I’m not sure I even want it’” [Canton Repository Editorial, 2/11/18]