The party has turned to a trio of women to try and pull off upsets in red states. | AP Photos Women recruited for red state races

MARTINSBURG, W. Va. — This time last year, the handicappers expected Heidi Heitkamp to lose her Senate bid in North Dakota. Instead, voters sent the folksy former prosecutor with a centrist profile to a surprising 1-percentage-point win.

Democrats hope that success story — of a moderate female candidate with a compelling biography running in a red state — can serve as a template for a handful of tough races in 2014.


The party has turned to a trio of women — Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky, Michelle Nunn in Georgia and Natalie Tennant in West Virginia — to try and pull off Heitkamp-like upsets in states where Republicans have the upper hand. Democratic strategists believe the candidates will be able to raise money and draw independents as they reprise the “war on women” playbook that worked effectively in 2012.

( PHOTOS: Senators up for election in 2014)

Grimes is challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Nunn will face the winner of a heated primary that top Republicans worry could produce an unelectable nominee. Tennant, the secretary of state, is up against another woman, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who has never run statewide.

At a campaign rally here, Tennant stepped off a makeshift stage to greet 80 supporters crammed into a Holiday Inn meeting room, with Shania Twain’s “ Man! I Feel Like a Woman” blaring from a boombox. She reminded everyone that her husband served in Afghanistan and talked about growing up on a farm with five brothers.

“Certainly I know how to be heard, and I know how to win,” she said, trying to put a third-place finish in a 2011 gubernatorial primary behind her.

( POLITICO's Women Rule series)

Asked about Obamacare afterward, the first line out of her mouth was: “I’m a mother whose daughter is 11 years old who had open-heart surgery when she was a week old.”

Ten of 12 female Democratic Senate nominees last year won, including Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. She was considered the most vulnerable incumbent but prevailed after Todd Akin mouthed off about “legitimate” rape.

“Defining a clear contrast for voters is the key to winning Senate races,” said Matt Canter, deputy executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Women candidates last cycle did a brilliant job of it in some of the most competitive races in the country. There are candidates this cycle well-positioned to do the exact same thing.”

National Republicans express confidence that all three women will lose on the issues, citing the unpopularity of Obamacare and Obama himself in these red states.

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“Women — more than anyone else — are tired of watching Washington dysfunction under the control of Barack Obama and Harry Reid and want a change,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Brook Hougesen.

“Regardless of how hard the boys of Maryland Ave. [at DSCC headquarters] try to spin their regurgitated talking points in an effort to scare women and make gender politics the centerpiece of their electoral strategy,” she added, “the truth of the matter is their Democratic candidates are on the wrong side of the issues.”

Some Republican women are running, too. Terri Lynn Land seems to have cleared the field in Michigan after stronger candidates took a pass. Liz Cheney is challenging an incumbent in a Wyoming primary. Others are running in crowded primaries in Georgia, Iowa and Minnesota.

At least part of the Democrats’ strategy reflects the belief, validated by polling, that many voters simply see women as more willing than men to work constructively to solve problems in Washington.

“Voters are just sick and tired of no one getting anything done,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, “and they think women will be more likely to get down to business, more likely to work together to find a solution and more likely to work on what will affect people’s lives as opposed to posturing and grandstanding.”

Even if they eventually come up short in all three races, some senior Democrats will be happy if their candidates force the GOP to spend millions in states that on paper should not be so competitive. That would be cash not spent against incumbents in top-tier races, such as Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu and North Carolina’s Kay Hagan.

One major factor in the recruiting push is that Republicans have historically struggled to define women without seeming mean or chauvinistic.

Karin Johanson managed Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s race last year in Wisconsin against Tommy Thompson. She said the former governor’s tone toward his female rival in debates helped Baldwin improve her standing with independent women. There was also significant backlash when a Republican campaign adviser posted a video of Baldwin, who is openly gay, dancing at a pride parade.

“Honestly, it seems like they are not very smart about running against women,” Johanson said.

The delicate nature of running against women already came into view this year when a national GOP spokesman criticized Grimes in Kentucky by calling her an “empty dress.” Democrats pounced, raising money off of what they quickly called a sexist attack.

Grimes unabashedly plays the gender card. Her campaign recently sent a press release with the subject line “Senator Gridlock falls flat with women of both parties” to highlight McConnell’s May vote against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Several GOP operatives will privately admit that Democrats have perfected the “war on women” playbook, even as they are exasperated by what they see as feigned outrage. They believe voters will eventually tune it out.

Another reason Democrats have sought out female candidates is the built-in infrastructure that exists to support their campaigns. EMILY’s List raised $52 million last cycle and counts more than 2 million members. They also believe Democratic women are better able to raise money than Republican women because more major liberal donors are female themselves.

Mary Beth Cahill, former executive director of EMILY’s List, noted that both Tennant and Grimes have already been elected secretary of state. Nunn has a deep Rolodex from her tenure running the Points of Light Foundation, which is linked to George H.W. Bush. She is the daughter of legendary blue dog Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn.

“It’s a maturation of a whole generation of women candidates,” Cahill said. “Now they are just poised to take advantage of opportunities as they open that weren’t there before.”

In West Virginia, Capito’s boosters stress that Beltway Democrats settled for Tennant only after several higher-profile men passed on the race, including former interim Sen. Carte Goodwin. A poll by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling last week put Capito ahead by 14 points.

Democratic leaders insist Tennant was always near the top of their list. They said they’ve been in touch with her since Sen. Jay Rockefeller announced his intention to retire in January, and they also talked with state Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Robin Davis about running.

Unless Karen Handel prevails in a Georgia GOP field in which her candidacy has not caught fire, this will also be the only Senate contest with two women. Asked about this dynamic, Tennant recalled Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) debating Republican challenger Wendy Long last year.

“As a political aficionado, I remember watching it on C-SPAN,” she said. “So I will look at that debate and maybe try to follow that.”

As a student in 1990, Tennant was the first woman ever chosen to be West Virginia University’s “Mountaineer” mascot. The chairwoman of the Jefferson County Democratic executive committee, Reva Mickey, was one of a handful of supporters to recall this two-decade-old achievement after the rally in Martinsburg.

“She was probably one of the best, if not the best, Mountaineer we’ve ever had,” said Mickey, who retired after 42 years as a school counselor. “I cheered so loudly for her because I was so proud that a female had made the cut.”