Could women—and the Real Republican Women of Schoharie County—bring civility back to politics?
Katrina Schweigard of Carlisle is convinced the answer is yes.
Ms. Schweigard—a Town of Carlisle councilman, treasurer for the Schoharie County GOP, a teacher, and mother of three—is now also president of the newly-formed Real Republican Women of Schoharie County.
About 20 women from across the county turned out for a startup meeting in Cobleskill Wednesday.
If they came because they’re tired of the battleground even local politics has become, Ms. Schweigard said, they left energized and feeling hopeful.
“We were all texting each other that night and even the next day,” Ms. Schweigard said Friday. “It was a great feeling…So different from being weighed down from all of this.
“I talk to my Democratic friends and we know we all agree on more things than people would have us think. We want to find ways to talk to each other and have honest conversations. It’s not a matter of agreeing to disagree—I hate when people say that. It’s about listening.”
The RRWSC is a successor to the Women’s GOP Club, which faded away over time as members moved onto other things in their lives, Ms. Sehweigard said, but still, there’s a need for a place where women can gather to support each other--and women candidates.
“I’m a woman and a woman politician, but I’m a woman first,” she said. “We’re still in a minority. We’re still a group that’s underserved. How do you empower women? You bring them together and you support them.”
And you celebrate their accomplishments—even when it means the first woman Vice President is a Democrat.
The RRWSC plans to meet quarterly—their next meeting is penciled in for May 19 at Chieftans—and they’re already at work on an Americanism essay for students as well as projects supporting veterans and fundraisers to help elect women GOP candidates.
Does Ms. Schweigard envision a meeting when GOP and Democratic women could sit down together and discuss issues?
Absolutely, she said.
“We talked about that. The bottom line is that we’re more alike than we are different. We’re neighbors, we’re your teachers…We know our community pulls together whenever there’s a disaster. Wouldn’t it be something if we could show the rest of the country how it’s done?”
In addition to Ms. Schweigard, RRWSC officers are: Vice Presidents Tara Palmer and Lauren Dutcher, Secretary Aimee Yorke, Media Secretary Tara Rehberg, and Treasurer Debra McAlister.