With the midterms fast-approaching, Rep. Elise Stefanik is resuming her mission to elect more GOP women to Congress — an effort that could help her party, and perhaps pay dividends for her own career.

This week, the North Country Republican, who is also the top-ranking Republican woman in the House, rolled out her latest slate of endorsements through her political action committee called Elevate-PAC (or E-PAC, for short).

The group included female congressional candidates in New York, Texas, Ohio and other states across the country.

“Not only should our candidates reflect our voters across the country, but we just need to reflect America. And [the] Republican Party has made big inroads in this,” Stefanik told Spectrum News 1.

Stefanik is predicting that the number of GOP women in the House will top 50 after this year’s midterms, a goal that could be helped by the fierce headwinds Democrats are facing in the polls.

Stefanik founded E-PAC following the 2018 election, when there were only 13 GOP women left in the House. Two years later, their numbers grew to more than 30.

By comparison, that same year there were 91 Democratic women in the House, according to data compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University.

That disparity is by no means new, said CAWP Director Debbie Walsh.

“The Democratic Party has done better overall when it comes to electing women,” Walsh said.

Center for American Women & Politics, Rutgers University

Walsh noted women are more likely to identify as Democrats. She argued the GOP needs to put more focus on getting women on the ballot.

“This kind of gender disparity that we see, particularly on the Republican side, is not going to go away until there's intentionality in making a change,” she said.

That is where Stefanik’s PAC comes in. It is not the first organization focused on electing Republican women, but it might be the most high profile.

In New York, the newest candidate to win the backing of Stefanik’s E-PAC is Liz Joy, who is challenging Albany-area Congressman Paul Tonko, a Democrat.

“In the cities, moms are concerned when their kids walk down the streets now. Suburban moms ... also want safety and security. It’s a universal issue that I can understand from a very practical perspective,” Joy said, explaining why she believes it is important for more GOP women to be elected to Congress.

Stefanik’s success with her PAC in 2020 helped her to vault into the number three position in House GOP leadership, ousting Rep. Liz Cheney.

Could electing more women thankful for her help further fuel her own leadership ambitions?

“I didn’t get into this just to create allies in Congress, but I’m really excited that they’ve gotten here and that we support one another,” Stefanik said.