TRENTON, N.J. – Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz will join the Assembly Republican leadership team as the sole deputy minority leader and plans to launch a Republican women’s caucus at the start of the next legislative session.
Munoz will work with incoming Assembly Republican Leader John DiMaio to coordinate Assembly floor activities, and build coalitions with Republicans at all levels of government and advocacy organizations in pursuit of the policy objectives of the Assembly Republican Caucus.
“My motivation for creating a Republican women’s caucus is voters. One hundred years ago, the first women elected to serve in the state Assembly were both Republicans. It is time we have a caucus dedicated to those who have been pursuing common legislative objectives for the last century,” Munoz (R-Union) said. “We will honor the women that paved the way for us to serve in the Legislature, and amplify the concerns of the women who elected us to represent them. I am privileged to be leading the charge.”
Voters elected seven female GOP newcomers to the Assembly – the most ever. There will be 14 Republican women in the state Assembly and Senate starting in January. That is the highest number of Republican women in the N.J. Legislature since the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University started keeping track in 1975.
“Assemblywoman Munoz has great leadership skills, and will bring diversity to the team, which will help build on the impressive gains we made this election,” DiMaio (R-Warren) said. “The people want more female voices in the Legislature and we want to make sure that this is represented in our leadership. Women are being heard by Republicans, while the Democrats are leaving their female colleagues off the guest list. We are here to lift women up and give them the platform they deserve.”
Assemblywoman Munoz is also joining Assemblyman Ned Thomson, who will serve as conference leader, and Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, who is replacing Thomson as whip, on the new Assembly Republican leadership team.
Newly-elected women members include: Claire Swift (R-Atlantic), Beth Sawyer (R-Gloucester), Bethanne McCarthy Patrick (R-Salem), Marilyn Piperno (R-Monmouth), Kimberly Eulner (R-Monmouth), Vicky Flynn (R-Monmouth) and Michele Matsikoudis (R-Union).