On Tuesday night, America lost its chance to elect its first woman president. But not all American women were upset about that. According to a CNN exit poll, Hillary Clinton received 54 percent of the votes from women across the country. But when divided by race, 53 percent of white women's votes went for Trump. No matter how you slice it, support for Clinton among women was far lower than many expected.
But if you ask a Republican woman, she won't be surprised that Trump over-performed. Four women who have been working on the front lines to get Trump and other GOP officials elected spoke to Elle.com about what they want a Trump administration to look like—and what they wish people would stop getting wrong about conservative women.
Theresa Kosmoski, president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women
How are you feeling today?
It was the best night we've had in a really, really long time. It was wonderful. It was the dawning of a new day in America, and I was so happy to see him win.
Hillary Clinton would have been the first woman president. How do you think the Trump administration will be for women, regardless of party?
Well, you know, I think the Trump administration is going to be fabulous for women. Let's just look at the things he's done in his own businesses. He has as many or more female executives as he does men. And we now have [Kellyanne Conway], the first female campaign manager who's ever run a successful election, thanks to Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton did not appoint a female campaign manager. He did, and it worked.
What policies of his will be good for women?
First thing he's going to do is repeal and replace Obamacare. That's hurt so many families in America. It has hurt women's abilities to get their families insured at a reasonable cost, and he will change that. He's going to enact polices that will help working moms with childcare issues. He'll do a lot of things to help women in general. I think we'll see more women getting what they've earned in this country in terms of employment, in terms of salary, all of the things that we look for.
How will Trump address pay and equality?
I think he will. Let's look at what he's done for his companies. Women earn as much as men in his companies that do the same work. I don't see why he would do anything different in terms of his polices as president.
What misconceptions do people have about Republican women?
It really irritates me when people, especially the media, think a Republican woman is somehow racist, because we are absolutely not racist. That just irritates me beyond belief. When they think we're uneducated or we're ignorant or somehow we're just toeing the party line without thinking about what it means. We're extremely independent, intelligent, thinking women. We care about every person in this country, not just white people or other white women, and I am very disappointed to see the media portray us in any other way.
Sandra Mortham, chairman of Maggie's List, which works to elect fiscally conservative women
Did you support Trump through the primaries?
He was not my first or second choice, but at the end of the day I did support him, yes and I was one of his speakers at his rallies.
How do you think his White House will be for women?
I think he'll be very inclusive. I think that at the end of the day you'll see that he'll put some key women in positions of importance, and frankly I think that women in general―and I think the election kind of bears it out―are concerned about jobs and the economy and certainly he has been pushing those issues really, really hard. For me personally, I believe that a strong national security and jobs and the economy really are the important issues.
What's your dream agenda for Trump and Pence?
I think that [he should] get government out of the way of American families and businesses. I mean, overregulation is killing us, and I think that people are just sick and tired of government being involved in every single avenue of our lives.
What are some common misconceptions about being a Republican woman?
I think that generally speaking, people believe that women speak with one voice, and I don't believe that's true. Women are very bright; I think they look at a broad spectrum of issues. And they don't base their vote strictly on whether it's a woman running. As chairman of Maggie's List, we are out there promoting fiscally conservative women running for Congress and winning. We're all about getting more women involved because it's important. But I would not support a woman just because she is a woman, it's because she's representing the right principles.
Who would you like to see as the first woman president?
I really, really like Kelly Ayotte and you know what's happened to her. We're sad about that because when we started Maggie's List, she was our first endorsed candidate. We're sad about that particular election but she just has unbelievable potential. She's the perfect person in my view that President-Elect Trump ought to look at and say – how can we utilize her talents in the White House.
Roseann Slonsky-Breault, immediate past president, California Federation of Republican Women
Trump had more votes for women than expected. Why do you think that was?
I wasn't surprised. For a long time, pundits said that Hillary was getting the women's vote or he's only getting part of the women's vote, but there were a lot of women and also men too that were the silent majority.
What issues matter most to Republican women?
To me, women's issues are like men's issues. They want to get a good job, they want their husbands to have a job. Women are usually the budgeters, and they haven't been happy for the past few years. I mean first of all, The Affordable Care Act is getting more expensive. People have to pay a higher deductible, and they're not happy with that. Also, when they go to the grocery store, they see groceries are rising. Everything is up in price and they're not happy with that. Women are also worried about terrorism attacks. They want to have a safe country, they want their children to grow up in a safe country, and they don't want to have to worry about them.
Who would you like to see as the first woman president?
I think Condoleezza Rice is a very bright woman. We have a number of states where the governors are women, and they're all incredible. Nikki Haley from South Carolina is doing a great job, she's a hard worker. Mary Fallin, the governor of Oklahoma, you know, there are some wonderful women. Any of those women would be great presidents. To me it's not so much the gender, it's the quality of the person. It needs to be the experience that's important.
Kathryn Serkes, co-chair of Women Vote Trump, a Super PAC that organized female Trump supporters
How are you feeling today?
I don't want to sound arrogant, but I'm not all that surprised. You never quite know, but we knew very early on that there was hidden support for Mr. Trump among women. Early on in the campaign, much more so than later, Mrs. Clinton really made gender the issue, and there's what I would call gender bullying and vote shaming going on. You were a traitor to your gender if you weren't going to vote for Hillary Clinton as the first woman president. Women were reluctant to speak for their support for Mr. Trump. We also felt that we wanted to give women a safe place to express their support. When we saw Democrats, African-Americans, Latinos who were supporting Mr. Trump, we knew it was a big tent, and felt strongly that the GOP needs to extend its tent.
What did you do?
When we started, the Trump campaign itself didn't have much of a ground game at this point. So these organic movements were springing up among women, creating Facebook groups. I was talking to women who were buying Facebook ads out of their own pocket to support this. This was such an organic movement to create a kind of home and bring that together as a resource. We wanted to work a little bit differently, we worked on harnessing the team and working on the ground game.
Why do you think a Donald Trump presidency will be good for women?
There aren't really women's issues. Women's issues are the same issues as the men's. We have basic issues. Are we safe, is our family safe, is my country safe from internal and external threats? Am I economically secure? Is my family secure? Can I pay my bills, can I feed my kids? Women talk about the issues in a different way. We use a different voice. We talk about it in a more personal way, most of the time, and so we felt strongly that we couldn't have a bunch of the good old boys from the GOP trying to tell women about issues in this race. We talk about it as women to women.
What issues do you think women care about?
A good economy is good for women. A country that's safe and secure is good for women. That's the bottom line on those two issues. As much as I would love to see a woman president, and I am sure that I will see one in my lifetime, I don't want a woman as a role model as the role model-in-chief who has ethical problems, who has lying problems. I think that is not a good thing for women. Mr. Trump has other issues, and we know he's not perfect, but he is transparent and he is what you see is what you get. I do debate coaching and media training for a lot of candidates, so I like to think I have a pretty good BS detector, and I can tell when somebody's the real deal. Trump made it very obvious that he was the real deal and not coached by a spin doctor like me. I would have advised him to not do or say some of the things he did, and I would have been wrong.
What should people know about Republican women?
It's not just Republican women. I am not exactly a model Republican myself. I was on the board of an LGBT group, and I personally am pro-choice, so I don't know where that actually puts me. I would like to convey to everyone that this is not about a bunch of angry white men who have taken over the country as of 2:30 this morning. This is the biggest, most diverse tent rallying around a candidate probably since Reagan built the blue-collar coalition that voted for him. We have Democrats, independents, Libertarians, all religions, all backgrounds. This is a very positive move and it's a very positive move from. We heard from women who want to shake things up, and that includes the GOP.
