Just two weeks before the November general election, Tennessee state Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, is asking women to shed identity politics, use their emotional and intellectual strength and vote based on policy.
At a recent monthly meeting of the Hamilton County Republican Women, Smith - along with Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, and Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga - gave a pep talk to rouse voters, encouraging them to vote conservative and vote down the ticket.
But also, Smith wants women to vote based on policy.
"I want you to walk away with a determination that you're going to do more in these last couple of days, that you're going to talk about policies and positions, and absolutely confront the narrative that is imposed upon us, particularly as women, that we shouldn't be offended by personalities," she said, encouraging the audience of around 60 women to be poised and thoughtful, but push back when someone tries to put their idealogy in a "box."
"We do have to win hearts and minds. And the bar is artificially higher for conservative women. It is because most of us love Jesus, love our husbands, work hard, raise our families, love America, unapologetically."
Smith condemned the idea that women are "gender traitors" for those positions.
"I own my own business, I'm successful, I don't hate my husband, married, I love my kids, faithful, you know, but that doesn't fit the narrative," she explained. "I'm pro-life. I carry a gun. I have a carry permit, all of those things. But that's not - that's the wrong kind of woman.
"I'm done with the relics of the past on how we have been forced, particularly as women, to fit into whatever boxes that the national media and others want to put us in as Republican-thinking women," she added.
In a subsequent interview, Smith explained that her frustrations come from her national political reading. Conservative women were called "gender traitors" in a 2018 New York Times opinion piece about Republican women supporting the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and, more recently, author Lauren Hough said in a tweet that Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is a "handmaid."
"And I'm thinking, why in the world, when it comes to voting, do we seem to have 'this is a menu of women's issues and these are the personality types that seem to fit better with us,'" Smith said in the interview. "I mean, I'm 57. Thankfully, my child-rearing days are over and I'm not interested in some of the same women's issues that are concerning the younger generation. However, I'm willing to listen to those on an individual basis, rather than being treated as if, if you don't believe in this, then you're not really a woman."
NOT BOXED IN
Almost to Smith's point, her opponent, Democrat Joan Farrell, says she doesn't feel that way as a woman in politics.
"I just don't feel like that boxes me in. I'm not too worried about that," Farrell said. "I do think a woman has to be more qualified than a man to be even perceived equally, but she shouldn't let that box her in on the issues."
Another Democrat, District 3 congressional candidate Meg Gorman, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, said in an interview that she agrees with some of Smith's concerns, but that there's a more insidious division among both voters and elected officials.
"I don't care which person is saying what, what the party affiliation is of that person, there's really no place for hate, especially right now when we are already so divided. And so it does make me sad to hear that people are so hateful," Gorman said of the comments. "We don't need to be using sex or gender identity to divide our nation even further. Or to serve as a justification for dividing on a party level."
Gorman said following the set identity politics of any group limits a voter or elected official's ability to consider the citizens who differ from them, and it contributes to the larger problem of bipartisanship.
"[Some people] are voting based on what they were told they need to do. And I think that impacts more than just women, I think that impacts people - men, women, Democrats, Republicans," Gorman said. "I think that impacts everyone, because we're having a two-party system. And I think that's why now more than ever, we need strong voices and strong leaders who are willing to stand up and speak out passionately about the things that they know are meaningful to the people who they represent."
'ALMOST TACTLESS'
Shifting to the November ballot, Smith said that while she would never condone "mistreatment," women are painted as caring more about "bedside manner" than policies.
"We as women should be offended that is the narrative. 'Oh, does he offend you,'" she said.
A woman from the audience shouted "no."
"I don't care for a personality, but I'm not [at] a pageant. And I reject that narrative full-throatedly," she said, endorsing President Donald Trump, but separating herself from some of his personality. "I don't agree with his morality. I don't agree with some of the statements. But guess what, am I perfect? No, I'm not."
"What I would tell you is, it's right on policy."
Smith, who worked in a heart transplant unit at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, compared Trump to renowned surgeons who were "almost tactless."
"We would have people come in to seek these very specialized hands to take them and this leadership team. Why? Because they were the top performers. Their outcomes were the best," she said. "They didn't win the personality pageant, but they won in saving lives."
Smith said the way to get others to stop "treating women as a homogeneous voting block" is for women - especially Republicans - to take policy, themselves and what she describes as their innate strengths as women seriously.
"I just challenged their thinking, to make sure that when we are talking as Republican women, that we don't assume that an issue is just for women, and that we speak intellectually, that we speak professionally. And that we appeal to both emotions and the intellect," she said. "Because we are, indeed, women, and women have a little bit more of an emotional side to us than men. But that doesn't make us weak, that actually makes us more multi-dimensional, in my view."
Contact Sarah Grace Taylor at staylor@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416. Follow her on Twitter @_sarahgtaylor.