Proving that women candidates don’t have the be abortion supporters to win in states both red or blue, pro-life women won 23 victories in contests for key Senate and House seats and in gubernatorial races.
Kelly Ayotte led the way in New Hampshire and will become the lone pro-life woman in the Senate, taking on pro-abortion stalwarts like Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein of California.
In gubernatorial races across the country, pro-life women have ascended to the leading executive spots of several states and positioned themselves to sign potential legislation to protect women and unborn children.
The percentage of women in the House of Representatives who are pro-life increased by 60 percent while the percentage of women who are pro-abortion decreased by 16 percent.
Jan Brewer won the race for re-election in Arizona while pro-life candidates won first-time races for governor in South Carolina (Nikki Haley), Oklahoma (Mary Falin), and New Mexico (Susana Martinez).
That brings the total number of pro-life women as governor to four from just one before Tuesday’s election.
“Thanks to the dramatic win of all four pro-life women governor candidates last night, pro-life women now outnumber pro-abort women in the Governor’s mansion,” says Daniel McConchie of Americans United for Life. “By contrast, there are only two pro-abort women in the Governor’s mansion – North Carolina’s Bev Purdue and Washington state’s Christine Gregoire, both of whom are up for election in 2012.”
The list of pro-life women winning elections “provides authentic female leadership” to Washington and across the nation, says Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life women’s group that led the effort for their election.
“That leadership is representative of women’s lived experience and includes a strong pro-life shift in opinion,” she said. The victories “represent a flowering of the original pro-life roots of the women’s movement which rejected the notion that the rights of unborn children and their mothers could be detached.”
In other statewide races seeing pro-life women win, Kay Ivey won her bid for Lt. Governor in Alabama, Kim Reynolds won her race for Lt. Governor in Iowa, Pam Bondi is the new Attorney General in Florida, and Beth Chapman is the new Secretary of State in Alabama.
Several pro-life women are heading back to the House of Representatives, including Michelle Bachmann in Minnesota, Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black in Tennessee, Virginia Foxx in North Carolina, Cynthia Lummis in Wyoming, Candice Miller in Michigan, Sue Myrick in North Carolina, Cathy McMorris Rogers in Washington, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Florida, and Jean Schmidt in Ohio.
They will be joined by Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Jaime Herrera in Washington, Renee Elmers of North Carolina, and Sandy Adams of Florida.
Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, also weighed in on the election of so many pro-life women.
“We are especially pleased that conservative women will now represent so many of us in this country. All of the slanderous and degrading accusations against these women have thankfully fallen on deaf ears and Americans recognize that these women are indeed the leaders of the next generation and we could not be more thrilled to work with them when they get to Washington,” she said.
“The balance of power has shifted and Americans have given the newly elected leaders a chance to undo the damage President Obama and the Democrats have done,” Nance added.
Nance said she expects the mainstream media to diminish the news that so many women who don’t represent the pro-abortion agenda won election.
“In the coming days media pundits will no doubt try to diminish our conservative victory and attempt to divide a movement unified in principle. This new Congress will be well-served to turn the TV off and listen to the women of America,” she said.
The results also indicate several pro-abortion women lost their campaigns or bids for re-election.
Incumbents Ann Kirkpatrick lost in Arizona, Carol Shea-Porter lost in New Hampshire, Suzanne Kosmas lost in Florida, Debbie Halvorson lost in Illinois. [related]
Roy Blunt beat pro-abortion Robin Carnahan in Missouri, pro-life John Boozman beat pro-abortion Sen, Blanch Lincoln in Arkansas, and pro-life Cory Gardner defeated pro-abortion Betsy Markey in Colorado.
In SBA List-versus-EMILY’s List head-to-head races, SBA List candidates won 91 percent of the time. Overall, EMILY’s List had a 38 percent success rate among its endorsed candidates.
