From the Center for American Women and Politics – With all candidates now chosen for the November 4th elections, Republicans continue to nominate fewer women than Democrats for congressional and statewide offices, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Fifteen women (10D, 5R) will be candidates for
the U.S. Senate, while 161 women (109D, 52R) are on the ballot for the U.S. House of
Representatives. (Not included in these numbers are four women running for non-voting
delegate seats.) In statewide races, 9 women (6D, 3R) are nominated for governor, 23 (14D, 9R)
for lieutenant governor, and 70 (45D, 25R) for other statewide elected executive offices.
Among non-incumbent candidates, Republican women won at a much lower rate than their
Democratic counterparts at nearly all levels, with the rate for House candidates closest to even
(44.7% win rate for Republicans, 52.5% for Democrats). Although disappointing, the win rate
for non-incumbent Republican women seeking House seats rose significantly from rates in 2010
(27%) and 2012 (31%), but the overall number of such candidates was lower this year.
In Senate races, the Democratic win rate for non-incumbent women was more than double that of
similarly situated Republican women (58.3% to 26.7%). While a third of the 15 non-incumbent
Democratic women who ran for governor won their primaries, none of the 11 Republican women
who ran were victors.
“Republicans stepped up their efforts to recruit women candidates this year, but the results were
disappointing,” observed CAWP director Debbie Walsh. “Democrats started with the advantage
of more incumbent women in the Senate and House, but the GOP wasn’t able to make up the
difference with challengers and candidates for open seats.”
US Senate and House
Four incumbent women, three of them Democrats, ran for the Senate this year; Mary Landrieu
(D-LA) faces her primary on November 4, and the three other incumbents (Susan Collins, R-ME;
Kay Hagan, D-NC and Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH) won their primaries. In the House, the 73
incumbent women running for re-election included 56 Democrats and 17 Republicans.
The record numbers of women candidates were set in 2012: 18 Senate candidates (12D, 6R) and
166 House candidates (118D, 48R).
-more- Women will oppose other women in two Senate races (ME and WV) and 14 House races. The
total number of woman-versus-woman races for the Senate and House is 16, barely besting the
record of 15 set in 1998.
Women currently hold 20 (16D, 4R) seats in the Senate and 79 (60D, 19R) in the House, not
including three non-voting delegates (DC, GU, VI).
Statewide Offices
This year’s gubernatorial candidates include four incumbents: three Republicans and one
Democrat. All four won their primaries; they will be joined on the November ballot by three
Democratic candidates for open seats and two Democratic challengers facing incumbent men.
The most women nominated for governor in any year was 10, a figure reached on four occasions
(1994, 2002, 2006, 2010). The most women to serve at one time is nine, which happened in 2004
and again in 2007.
For an analysis of women candidates for statewide office this year, visit CAWP’s footnotes blog.
Complete information about women candidates in 2014 – along with background information
about women in past elections – is available at CAWP’s Election Watch web page.
About CAWP
The Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a university-based research, education and public
service center. Its mission is to promote greater knowledge and understanding about women’s
changing relationship to politics and government and to enhance women’s influence and
leadership in public life. CAWP is a leading authority in its field and a respected bridge between
the academic and political.