Debbie Kozak
By Debbie Kozak
Women have held guaranteed leadership roles in the Yonkers Republican Party since its founding in 1940. Now an official meeting has been called to amend the bylaws and eliminate women from those positions entirely.
‘What the hell are they doing?’ asks Debbie Kozak, President of the John P. O’Leary NW Yonkers Republican Club and former 2023 Republican Candidate for Westchester County Legislator in District 16. “I wonder if they even know.”
In a letter dated Sept. 4, 2026 ‘to all members of the Yonkers Republican City Committee’, GOP Chairman Robert Moffitt has called for a special meeting on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026 to review proposed amended by-laws.
“For more than 86 years, women’s participation has been welcomed by Yonkers Republican party’s leadership. What exactly is going on? –what’s up with disenfranchising as much as half of our citywide constituency?
“A proposed takeover of the Republican Party by men excluding women is unnecessary, unacceptable and cannot stand,” declares Kozak.
Kozak noted that men have already been improperly installed into Yonkers GOP positions historically reserved for women. Most recently e.g., in 2025, Devin O’Rourke, a thirty-ish male was appointed First Vice-Chairman — a position designated IN THE BY-LAWS “who shall be a
woman.”
She added, “Women of the Republican Party need to be seriously represented by more than mere attendance at meetings. They’re not meant to be mere spectators, or servants in the kitchen making dinner. They should be serving as leaders, too.”
Kozak also pointed to the Yonkers GOP’s decades-long electoral decline: “The Good Old Boys’ network hasn’t produced a single elected City Council member in years. In fact, last year we lost one Republican council seat, leaving only 1 of the remaining 7 filled by a Republican.
“There’s not a single prospective GOP candidate for City Council to oppose the currently entrenched Democrat machine, and no viable Republican mayoral candidates even in sight.
“So the question going forward is, do we want men exclusively running this party, or do we want women to be participating in, and contributing to, GOP leadership?”
Kozak also criticized the Special Committee appointed by Moffitt to review the bylaws, noting that, “it most likely didn’t have a woman on it,” adding, “Women in leadership might, could, should, and probably would do a hell of a lot better than the sorry-ass, perennially weakened position we find ourselves in.”
Message to Moffitt: “With all due respect, this is not the time to eliminate women from the Grand Old Yonkers Republican Party,” Kozak said. “This is the time to bring us back into leadership roles and grow our organization from the grassroots up.”