Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Arkansas

Kelly Dittmar

Gender Watch 2018From March to December 2018, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation (BLFF) and the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) partnered to offer Gender Watch 2018, which tracked, analyzed, and illuminated gender dynamics in the 2018 midterm elections. With the help of expert scholars and practitioners, Gender Watch 2018 furthered public understanding of how gender influences candidate strategy, voter engagement and expectations, media coverage, and electoral outcomes in campaigns. The blog below was written for Gender Watch 2018, as part of our collective effort to raise questions, suggest answers, and complicate popular discussions about gender’s role U.S. elections.

 

Ahead of the Arkansas primary election on May 22, 2018, we outline the numbers and proportions of women who have filed as candidates for congressional and statewide office. The data below also provide points of historical comparison to give context to today’s presence and potential success of women candidates.

All data are provided from the Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. For a full list of the women candidates in AR primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page. 

CONGRESS

Current: 0 of 6 members of the Arkansas congressional delegation (0%)
Filed: 2 (2D)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 15.4% (2 of 13)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators

  • Two women have served in the U.S. Senate from Arkansas: Blanche Lincoln (D, 1999-2011) and Hattie Wyatt Caraway (D, 1931-1945). Caraway, who was first appointed to the Senate in 1931, became the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate (nationwide) in 1932.

THERE IS NO U.S. SENATE RACE IN ARKANSAS THIS YEAR.

HOUSE

Current: 0 of 4 representatives (0%)

  • A total of 4 (4D) women have represented Arkansas in the U.S. House. No woman has served in the U.S. House from Arkansas since 1997. 

Filed:  2 (2D)

  • Both Democrat women candidates for the U.S. House are running to challenge Republican incumbents in the general election.

Districts with Women Candidates: 2 of 4
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  15.4% (2 of 13)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  28.6% (2 of 7)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 6)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Arkansas in 2018 is not a record high. Between 2008 and 2018, the highest number of women candidates filed to run for the U.S. House was 4 in 2010, when there were 3 open U.S. House seats being contested. This year, there are no open House seats in Arkansas.

GOVERNOR

Current: 0
No woman has ever served as governor of Arkansas.

Filed: 2 (1R, 1D)

  • 1 Democratic woman is running to challenge Republican incumbent Governor Asa Hutchinson in the general election.
  • 1 Republican woman is running to challenge Republican incumbent Governor Asa Hutchinson in the primary election.

Percent of all Filed Gubernatorial Candidates (D/R):  50% (2 of 4)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates:  50% (1 of 2)
Percent of all Filed Republican Gubernatorial Candidates: 50% (1 of 2)

Recent history: Just one other woman – Lynette Bryant (D) – has run for governor of Arkansas in the past decade. She was defeated in the Democratic primary. Just one woman (Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher, 2002) has ever been a major party nominee for governor in Arkansas.

  • If nominated this year, Democrat Leticia Sanders would not only be the first woman and the first woman of color general election candidate for governor in Arkansas. She would also be the first Black woman major party nominee for governor nationwide.

OTHER STATEWIDE ELECTED EXECUTIVE OFFICES

Current: 2 of 6 positions (excludes governor) (33.3%)

Filed:  3 (1D, 2R)

  • Republican incumbents Leslie Rutledge (Attorney General) and Andrea Lea (State Auditor) are running for re-election. Both are unopposed for the Republican nomination.
  • Democrat Susan Inman is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for the state’s open secretary of state office.

Percent of all Filed Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates (D/R): 27.3% (3 of 11)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates (D/R): 25% (1 of 4)
Percent of all Filed Republican Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates (D/R): 28.6% (2 of 7)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for statewide elected executive offices (other than governor) in Arkansas in 2018 is not a record high. In 2014, 7 (3D, 4R) women filed as candidates for these offices.

Arkansas has never elected a woman of color to statewide elected executive office.

  • Of the 5 women candidates for statewide executive office (including governor) this year, just one is a Black woman.
Kelly Dittmar headshot

Kelly Dittmar

Kelly Dittmar is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers–Camden and Director of Research and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She is the co-author of A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Representation Matters (Oxford University Press, 2018) (with Kira Sanbonmatsu and Susan J. Carroll) and author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns (Temple University Press, 2015).

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