THE YEAR OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT WOMAN.

Part of the emerging shape of Washington's next iteration of gridlock is a House Republican caucus with more entrepreneurs, ethnics, and women.

Promoting women politicians in particular can mean walking a tricky line in the GOP. Republican voters often say they are voting for the best candidate, regardless of gender or race.

And there were echoes of that when NPR asked [Tom] Emmer, the National Republican Congressional Committee chair, if celebrating women's victories qualifies as so-called "identity politics."

"These people are not going to be great representatives just because of their gender, their race. These are people with incredible backgrounds," he said. "And I'll tell you that we wanted the best candidates. That's what we were looking for across this country."

On the other hand, while [New York representative Elise] Stefanik stressed that she worked to back high-quality candidates, she also stressed that it's important for the party to try to make its lawmakers look more like the party itself. She also believes she's proven something to her party leadership.

"I was really proud that [Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy, [Minority Whip] Steve Scalise and many of my male colleagues embraced this effort, including Tom Emmer, who learned pretty quickly that it's important to prioritize recruitment of women candidates and nontraditional candidates," she said.

The article concludes, "Lawmakers, like voters, vote based on party, not gender."