GOP women rally in Port Clinton for voter registration

PORT CLINTON - Adorned in bright red, white and blue, a bus named “Rosie” was hard to miss as it rolled through town Tuesday evening for a pit stop in Ottawa County.

Downtown Port Clinton was one of the many stops as “Rosie,” the National Federation of Republican Women’s campaign bus, continues its tour through key battleground states across the country in effort to increase voter registration among women.

Carrie Almond, president of the NFRW, said this year she found out there were more than 23 million women in the U.S. who are not registered to vote.

“I asked the organization to really focus in on registering women to vote,” Almond said. “Because I felt like the women’s vote is going to be the most important vote in November.”

A plan was developed to reach out to state and local Republican women organizations to encourage the voter registration campaign, she said, and the idea for “Rosie” was to be an ambassador of the message.

Lyn Bliss, president of the Ohio Federation of Republican Women, said that in addition to the rallies, the hope is people seeing Rosie passing by will take notice. She said they already often get honks and waves in support.

“(Rosie) is a conversation starter,” said Linda Casey, board member of the OFRW and president of the Republican Women of Hancock County.

“It’s not just all of the people that are here, but all of the people they will talk to,” Bliss said.

The bus has already traveled 12,000 miles since its tour began in June, traveling through 23 states thus far, as the campaign continues to Election Day on Nov. 8.

Jill Stinebaugh, president of the Ottawa County Republican Women's Club, noted the significance of the Ottawa County electorate, which has for 53 years sided with the candidates who would go on to win the presidency of the United States, a perfect 13 out of 13 elections.

On top of her distinct red, white and blue, “Rosie” now also carries signatures and personal messages from hundreds of rally attendees.

The National Federation of Republican Women is an organization of about 65,000 women with a stated mission of empowering women in the political process.

“They do grassroots politics,” Almond said, “from the courthouse to the White House.”

jstinchcom@gannett.com

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