Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Kentucky

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 Kentucky 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 KY primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 0 of 8 members of the Kentucky congressional delegation (0%)
Filed: 6 (4D, 2R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 21.4% (6 of 28)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators

  • No woman has ever served in the U.S. Senate from Kentucky.

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

HOUSE

Current: 0 of 6 representatives (0%)

  • A total of 2 (2R) women have represented Kentucky in the U.S. House: Anne Northrup (R, 1997-2007) and Katherine Gudger Langley (R, 1927-1931).

Filed:  6 (4D, 2R)

  • All 6 (4D, 2R) women candidates for the U.S. House are running to challenge incumbents in the general election.

Districts with Women Candidates: 4 of 6
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  21.4% (6 of 28)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  22.2% (4 of 18)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 20% (2 of 10)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Kentucky in 2018 is greater than any other year between 2008 and 2018. Between 2008 and 2018, the next highest number of women candidates filed to run for the U.S. House was 2 in 2008, when there was 1 open U.S. House seat being contested. This year, there are no open House seats in Kentucky.

THERE ARE NO STATEWIDE EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS IN KENTUCKY THIS YEAR.

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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