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Reps. Stefanik, Comstock Join Launch of ‘Empowered Women’ Effort

Stefanik, left, and Comstock, center, joined The Empowered Women Project for its launch event Wednesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Stefanik, left, and Comstock, center, joined The Empowered Women Project for its launch event Wednesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

More than 200 people, including no shortage of current and former congressional aides, gathered Wednesday evening to launch a new platform for conservative-leaning women.  

The Empowered Women project, a nonprofit that launched a website Wednesday with a manifesto , is the brainchild of GOP political strategist Mindy Finn, who has worked for, among other things, Twitter and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.  

“One thing we all agree on is that there is more work to be done.  It’s an exciting time to be discussing women’s rights, and we seek to give women who may feel underrepresented in the current conversation a chance to be heard,” Finn said.  

Attendees included some of the top Republican communicators and other senior staffers, with featured guests and freshman Reps. Barbara Comstock of Virginia and Elise Stefanik of New York. Both lawmakers were active in the Washington political arena as staffers before being elected in their own right. Stefanik is also the youngest woman ever elected to the House.  

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., had been on the agenda for the private event, but she couldn’t attend because the Senate was engaged in a lengthy series of budget votes.  

But the list of staffers past and present, and media figures who attended Wednesday evening’s launch (some of whom are separately featured on the website) should get attention. Heard on the Hill is told they included Laura Cox Kaplan, Mike Shields, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Katie Pavlich, Mary Katharine Ham, Sarah Isgur Flores, Ann Marie Hauser, Riva Litman, Erica Elliott, Lisa Camooso Miller, Ashley Berrang, Connor Walsh, Amber Marchand, Justin and Julie Germany, Ali-Jae Asseltine, Andrea Bozek, Victoria Weaver and Patrick Ruffini.  

Correction, 5:35 p.m. A previous version of this post misspelled the name of the GOP political strategist Mindy Finn.  


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