Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Montana

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 Montana primary election on June 5, 2018, we outline the numbers and proportions of women who have filed as candidates for congressional 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 MT primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 0 of 3 members of the Montana congressional delegation (0%)
Filed: 2 (2D)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 16.7% (2 of 12)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators (0%)

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

Filed: 0

  • No women are running to challenge incumbent Senator Jon Tester (D) this year. Tester is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Of the 4 Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, 0 are women.

HOUSE

Current: 0 of 1 representative (0%)

  • The only woman to ever represent Montana in the U.S. House – and in Congress – is Jeanette Rankin (R). She became the first woman in Congress in 1917 and served another term from 1941-1943. No woman has represented Montana in Congress since then.

Filed: 2 (2D)

  • 2 Democratic women are running to challenge Republican incumbent Greg Gianforte in the general election.

Districts with Women Candidates: 1 of 1
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  28.6% (2 of 7)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  33.3% (2 of 6)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 1) 

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Montana 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 3 in 2012, when Montana’s at-large U.S. House seat was open. That seat is not open this year.

GOVERNOR

Current: 0

  • Montana has elected one woman governor: Judy Martz (R) served from 2001 to 2005.

THERE IS NO GUBERNATORIAL CONTEST IN MONTANA THIS YEAR. 

OTHER STATEWIDE ELECTED EXECUTIVE OFFICES

Current: 1 of 7 positions (excludes governor) (14.3%)

THERE ARE NO STATEWIDE EXECUTIVE OFFICES UP FOR ELECTION THIS YEAR. The state’s public service commission seats are elected by district, not statewide.

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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