'Badass' Democratic women with national security backgrounds offer a Trump antidote

“Democrats have a problem, not just in being perceived as liberal, but that liberal often ends up being perceived as weak,” Lake said. “But you can’t run ‘weak’ against these women – they’re tougher than nails.”

TRUMP ANTIDOTE

Women were key to Democrats regaining control of the House during the midterm congressional elections.

There will be 102 women in the House next year, shattering previous records, and 89 of them are Democrats. Sherrill, Luria and Houlahan are the largest-ever influx of women veterans, according to the nonpartisan Veterans Campaign.

Sherrill set a fundraising record in her district, while Spanberger raised more than double her incumbent opponent. Outside spending in Slotkin’s race was among the highest in the country.

The “veterans and ex-CIA officers who stepped up to run for Congress built some of the strongest campaigns in the country,” said Tyler Law, spokesman for the DCCC, the arm of the Democratic Party dedicated to supporting House candidates.

Jon Soltz, co-founder of Vote Vets, which seeks to elect Democratic veterans, said the group will start raising money soon for several House districts it thinks are winnable in 2020 after narrow losses by veterans in 2018.

Candidates with a service background get an “instant stamp of credibility” with voters, said Jeremy Rosner, a former national security adviser to President Bill Clinton.

“I don’t know for sure if we’re going to have a female presidential candidate with a national security background, but I think there’s a very good chance we’ll see that at the Senate level,” said Rosner, whose Democratic strategy firm worked on Slotkin’s race this year. “There’s no reason that doesn’t have the same punch at a statewide race as it does in a House race.”

Jeremy Teigen, a Ramapo College of New Jersey political scientist, said this year’s winners were the ideal foil to Trump, a president who obtained multiple military draft deferrals during the Vietnam War, questioned the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies and made lewd comments about women.

“What’s the antidote to a guy who is a potential draft dodger and misogynist? How about a female who volunteered for military service,” said Teigen, who in May 2016 was one of more than 100 Republicans from the national security community who signed a letter opposing Trump’s presidency.

Military and national security experience could appeal to cross-over voters, said Center for a New American Security fellow Jason Dempsey.

But he cautioned that it may not be a “magic bullet” in 2020 because foreign policy rarely defines U.S. elections.

‘MISSION FOCUS’

The slate of women with national security credentials who just got elected said they are focused on their new roles.

After navigating the U.S. Capitol and posing for selfies together during Congress’ new-member orientation, they plan to concentrate on issues that are “not necessarily all defense-minded,” Houlahan said in an interview.

“They’re the issues we ran on – making sure there is quality, accessible healthcare, jobs, frankly, campaign finance reform,” she said.

The women said they see governing through a different lens given their service backgrounds.

Sherrill pointed out that all of them have excelled in male-dominated fields and had to find ways to get along with, and sometimes lead, teams of individuals with whom they did not have much in common.

As a result, “I have very little patience for a Congress that can’t get along,” she said.

Slotkin said in 14 years in national security and three tours of Iraq with the U.S. military, “no one ever asked me if I was a Democrat or a Republican.” She said that type of “mission focus” will follow her to the House.

Spanberger said she saw little point in passing bills in the House that would only fail in the Republican-led Senate.

“I want to get stuff done,” she said.