'She Votes 2012' Seeks to Engage Conservative Women
Concerned Women for American President and CEO Penny Nance is set to unveil a million-dollar campaign on Tuesday called "She Votes 2012," designed to encourage conservative women to vote in the November general election with the primary objective of targeting key states where women can have an immediate impact.
"We will light a 'grassfire' amongst our constituents to reach women, families, and cultural leaders," Nance told The Christian Post on Friday. "This is a critical election year, and the time is now for women to stand up and let their voices be heard."
"We know that when conservatives vote their values, they elect men and women whom CWA and CWA members can work with to see that founding principles are applied and enacted into law," said Nance. "We need conservatives to turn out in great numbers in order to get legislation passed that will move our great country back to a secure footing."
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"She Votes 2012" follows a similar effort introduced by former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum last week called Patriot Votes, who goal is also to mobilize conservative voters to turn out in numbers similar to those seen in the mid-1990s, early 2000s and in 2010.
The CWA effort will primarily concentrate on voter registration, identification and turnout, according to a written statement from the group. Field directors plan to use grassroots tools such as phone banks, social media and public events to encourage voter participation, especially among women.
Both liberals and conservatives recognize that turnout this election season – especially in such key states as Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin – will most likely tilt the presidential contest one way or the other. Additionally, increasing the number of conservatives in Congress will be vital if Romney, as the conservative candidate, is successful in reversing or stopping some of the policies implemented by Obama over the past four years.
Democratic women such as Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz believe President Obama retains a significant edge among women voters, especially when it comes to women's health issues.
Wasserman told The Washington Post in an interview last week that Romney's promise to eliminate Obama's signature Affordable Care Act would "take us back to the time when just being a woman was a pre-existing condition," and criticized Republicans for targeting Planned Parenthood's government funding.
Yet other female political analysts such as Orit Sklar dispute the liberal slant when it comes to women's issues and believes that women – especially younger women – will take a hard look at the issues before casting their votes this fall.
"I think there is definitely a 'perceived' gap among female voters, but I don't think Democrats have the strong foothold on the women's vote that they claim," Sklar told CP.
"Democrats want to buy the women's vote, and the paycheck fairness bill is a perfect example," she noted. "But Republicans seek to keep government out of business and the home for that matter, and that is starting to appeal to more younger women who have college degrees but can't find the job they have been trained for or repay the student loans they have accumulated for their education."
According to census data released last year, more women than men hold undergraduate degrees and among adults 25 and over, 10.6 million women have master's degrees or higher compared with 10.5 million men.
But more important to conservatives, even those who call themselves social conservatives, are economic issues and they are a driving force for almost every American.
"When you think about the issues that motivate women voters, they are jobs, the economy and health care," noted Sklar. "And President Obama has failed miserably in all three areas. The irony of all this is how feminists have long fought for the ability that women should be in control of their lives, but our president has said he is 'our sister's keeper.' That sound like the feminists just want to hand over the keys to a liberal and that's what they have done with our current president."
The "She Votes 2012" website will be activated on Tuesday and is located at www.shevotes2012.org.
