Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Kansas

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 Kansas primary election on August 7, 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 Kansas primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 1 (1R) of 6 members of the Kansas congressional delegation (16.7%)
Filed: 4 (3D, 1R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 16.7% (4 of 24)

SENATE

THERE IS NO U.S. SENATE ELECTION IN KANSAS THIS YEAR.

HOUSE

Current: 1 of 4 representatives (25%)

  • Representative Lynn Jenkins (R) is the only woman in the Kansas congressional delegation. She is not running for re-election this year.

Filed:  4 (3D, 1R)

  • 3 (3D) women are running for Democratic nominations to challenge Republican incumbents, including two women competing against each other for the Democratic nomination in KS-03.
  • One Republican woman – Caryn Tyson – is running for Republican nomination in KS-02’s open seat contest. She is running against 6 men.

* Sharice Davids (D) is the only woman of color among the 4 women candidates for the U.S. House in Kansas. If successful, she would be the first woman of color in Congress from Kansas and among the first Native American women in Congress. (Deb Haaland is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House in New Mexico, where she is favored to win.)

Districts with Women Candidates:  3 of 4
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  20% (4 of 20)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  30% (3 of 10)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 7.1% (1 of 14)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Kansas in 2018 is not a record high. Between 2008 and 2018, the largest number of women candidates filed for the U.S. House was 8 (2D, 6R) in 2010, when three of four U.S. House seats in Kansas were open. This year, there is just one open U.S. House seat in Kansas.

  • This year does, however, mark the highest number of Democratic women running for the U.S. House in Kansas between 2008 and 2018.

GOVERNOR

Current: 0
Two women – both Democrats – have served as governor of Kansas: Kathleen Sebelius (2003-2009) and Joan Finney (1991-1995). They are also the only women to have won major party nominations for governor in Kansas.

Filed:  1 (1D)

  • Democrat Laura Kelly is the only woman competing for Kansas’ gubernatorial seat.

Percent of all Filed Gubernatorial Candidates (D/R):  8.3% (1 of 12)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  20% (1 of 5)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 7)

OTHER STATEWIDE ELECTED EXECUTIVE OFFICES

Current: 0 of 5 positions (excludes governor) (0%)

  • No woman has served in statewide executive office in Kansas since 2015.

Filed:  7 (3D, 4R)

  • 4 (1D, 3R) women are running for the lieutenant governor, including 3 (3R) primary challengers and 1 (1D) woman seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge a Republican incumbent in the general election.
  • 1 (1R) woman is running to for the open seat of insurance commissioner.
  • 1 (1D) woman is running to for the open seat of state treasurer.
  • 1 (1D) woman is running to challenge the Republican incumbent for attorney general.

Percent of all Filed Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates (D/R): 28% (7 of 25)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates: 33.3% (3 of 9)
Percent of all Filed Republican Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates: 25% (4 of 16)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the statewide executive offices (other than governor) in Kansas in 2018 is higher than any year between 2008 and 2016.

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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