MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – A group of Republican women joined forces with Democrats Friday for a strategy session aimed at getting Sen. John Kerry elected president.

Members of the new “GOP Women for Kerry Steering Committee” discussed ways to spread the message that the “W” in George W. Bush stands for “wrong” not “women.”

Nan Stearns of Amherst said she and her husband both were Republicans but the war in Iraq horrified them so much they switched their support.

Stearns said her goal is to encourage other women like herself to come forward.

“There are a lot of Republican women like myself who perhaps don’t have the courage to speak out,” she said.

Mary Hutchins of Laconia voted for both President Bush and his father and still considers herself a Republican. But she now supports Kerry, in part because she fears if Bush is re-elected, he will get a chance to appoint anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court.

“I’m hoping that will encourage young women to register immediately to vote,” she said.

AP-ES-09-10-04 1547EDT