A Historic Number of Women Are Running For Congress. Again.
These are the nine to watch
The 2018 pink wave that saw a record number of women running for Congress and winning was no fluke. A record 490 women have filed as candidates for House seats in the 2020 election, according to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) — a figure that tops the then-high of 476 that ran in 2018. And with candidate filing deadlines still weeks away in 14 states, we can expect even more women to step forward.
Of those female candidates, 195 are running on the Republican ticket, a notable figure given the dearth of female GOPers in the House, and far more than the previous high of 133 in the 2010 midterms. “We’re seeing the closing of the partisan gap among women,” said Kelly Dittmar, an assistant research professor at CAWP. In an effort to retake the House, Republicans are using the Democrats’ 2018 playbook and recruiting diverse candidates to challenge incumbents.
On the Senate side, the 48 women running represents the second-most ever in a cycle — just behind the 53 who ran in 2018.
Control over the House and Senate hangs in the balance this year, and women candidates are at the center of some of the closest races. Using the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan online newsletter that analyzes…
