By Mica Soellner, Washington Times — Oct 27, 2021
Lawmakers took a break from the contention on Capitol Hill on Wednesday night, embracing bipartisanship at the annual women’s congressional softball game.
The game, played at Watkins Recreation Center in Washington D.C., featured members of Congress versus journalists. The press team won 5-1.
The event raised over $500,000 for the Young Survival Coalition, which supports those with breast cancer.
Tamara Keith, NPR’s White House correspondent, said the game is one of the few opportunities where bipartisanship is on display.
“There are so few things where members of Congress actually talk to each other, [lawmakers] who were from a different party,” Ms. Keith said. “To have something like this, and have it keep getting bigger and stronger and raise more money is just incredible.”
The game comes amid gridlock in Congress on two major spending bills that would spend trillions on infrastructure and socia-welfare programs.
Eighteen members of the House and Senate played reporters from various media outlets in the 13th annual charity event.
Among those who played were Democratic Reps. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Cheri Bustos of Illinois, and Republican Reps. Kat Cammack of Florida and Lisa McClain of Michigan.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Dana Bash of CNN and Andrea Mitchell of NBC News were the featured announcers of the game.
Rep. Angie Craig, Minnesota Democrat, said she’s glad the game took place while a historic number of women are serving in Congress. But she hopes one day they can compete in the similar vein of the annual congressional baseball game, played by male lawmakers.
The men’s baseball game typically pits Republicans versus Democrats, rather than lawmakers versus the press.
“Someday maybe we’ll get to play Republicans versus Democrats like the men do,” Ms. Craig said. “On the other hand, I think it’s really cool that we get to spend time with my Republican colleagues.”