Is the Republican Party doomed to repeat 2012’s “War on Women” in the 2016 presidential campaign? The three male, Republican candidates for president may surprise you. The Democratic Party’s narrative that the Republican Party was committing a “War on Women” was based on a series of remarks that made Todd Akin, Robert Mourdock, Rick Santorum, and Rush Limbaugh household names in 2012. From Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” for her advocacy around contraception, to Santorum’s opposition to abortion in cases of rape, this constellation of extreme statements gave the Democratic Party ample material to demonstrate that the Republican Party was hopelessly out of touch with women, particularly around issues of reproduction and sexuality. While the “War on Women” narrative was less successful for Democrats in last year’s elections, it has reemerged in 2015 with renewed attention to the Republican candidates for president.
