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Nov. 7, 2018 / 2:43 AM GMT / Updated 3:22 AM GMT
By Jane C. Timm
A record-smashing number of women are on the ballot today, giving the nation a chance to elect more woman than ever before.
Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat, defeated Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in Virginia, while NBC News projects that Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., will win re-election. Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot, lost her bid in Kentucky against Republican incumbent Rep. Andy Barr.
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Women have been breaking records all year: more than 500 women filed to run for Congress, according the Center for American Women and Politics, and more women than ever before won primaries to appear on today’s ballot. In the Senate, 23 women are on the ballot, while 237 women are on the ballot in House races. A record-breaking 16 women are also on the ballot in governor’s races.
The surge of female candidates was largely fueled by Democrats, nominating women in record numbers: half of all non-incumbents Democratic nominees to the House are women, compared to just 18 percent of non-incumbent Republican nominees in House races. Of the 276 women on the ballot on Tuesday in the House, Senate, and governor’s races, 77% are Democrats.
These women didn’t just break records: they set the political playbook on fire, with armies of first-time candidates running as outsiders and throwing out the conventional wisdom that women must be twice as qualified, twice as polished, and twice as careful as their male counterparts to mount a bid. While in past years, women have run for state and local office first, this year’s races attracted women from all walks of life: fighter pilots, teachers, executives, nurses, and moms who were so fed up with politics they decided to run themselves.
2018’s wave of women could, some hope, change things forever in a political world that has been dominated by men since the all-male assemblies of Athens. If women like Iowa’s Abby Finkenauer, a 29-year-old Democrat who talks freely about her student loans in a bid against a tea party Republican incumbent, and Georgia’s Lucy McBath, a flight attendant whose son’s murder propelled her into politics, can win their House bids, then the possibilities of who else might be able to join her in Congress expands drastically.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
