Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Missouri

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

CONGRESS

Current: 3 (1D, 2R) of 10 members of the Missouri congressional delegation (30%)
Filed: 15 (8D, 7R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 26.3% (15 of 57)

SENATE

Current: 1 of 2 senators

  • Incumbent U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D), the second woman senator from Missouri, is running for re-election this year.

Filed: 5 (3D, 2R)

  • Incumbent U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D) is running for re-election. She is being challenged by 6 Democrats in the primary.
  • 2 (2D) women are challenging Senator McCaskill in the Democratic primary.
  • 2 (2R) women are seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Senator McCaskill in the general election.

Percent of all Filed Senate Candidates (D/R): 27.8% (5 of 18)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Senate Candidates:  42.9% (3 of 7)
Percent of all Filed Republican Senate Candidates: 18.2% (2 of 11)

HOUSE

Current: 2 of 8 representatives (25%)

  • 2 (2R) women serve in the U.S. House from Missouri. They are both running for re-election this year.

Filed:  10 (5D, 5R)

  • 2 (2R) women incumbents – Representatives Ann Wagner and Vicky Hartzler – are running for re-election.
  • 2 (1D, 1R) women are running as challengers to incumbents of their own party.
  • 6 (4D, 2R) women are seeking party nominations to challenge incumbents in the general election.
  • There are no open U.S. House seats in Missouri this year.

* Of the 10 women candidates for the U.S. House in Missouri, one – Cori Bush, who identifies as Black – is a woman of color. There is no racial verification available for one woman candidate. No woman of color has ever been sent to Congress from Missouri.

Districts with Women Candidates:  6 of 8
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  25.6% (10 of 39)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  23.8% (5 of 21)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 27.8% (5 of 18)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Missouri in 2018 is greater than any other year between 2008 and 2018, despite there being no open U.S. House seats in Missouri this year.

  • This year marks the highest number of Democratic and Republican women running for the U.S. House in Missouri between 2008 and 2018. 

OTHER STATEWIDE ELECTED EXECUTIVE OFFICES

The only statewide executive office up for election in Missouri this year is state auditor.

Current: Nicole Galloway (D) is the current State Auditor of Missouri. She is running for re-election this year. Three (2D, 1R) other women have served as Missouri’s state auditor, including current Senator Clare McCaskill (D).

Filed:  2 (1D, 1R)

  • One Republican woman – Saundra McDowell – is running to challenge incumbent State Auditor Nicole Galloway (D) in the general election. Galloway is unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Percent of all Filed Candidates for State Auditor (D/R):  40% (2 of 5)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Candidates for State Auditor:  100% (1 of 1)
Percent of all Filed Republican Candidates for State Auditor: 25% (1 of 4)

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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