Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in North Carolina

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 North Carolina primary election on May 8, 2018, we outline the numbers and proportions of women who have filed as candidates for congress. 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 NC primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 2 (1D, 1R) of 15 members of the NC congressional delegation (13.3%)
Filed: 10 (8D, 2R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 17.9% (10 of 56)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators

  • 2 women have represented North Carolina in the U.S. Senate: Republican Elizabeth Dole (2003-2009) and Democrat Kay Hagan (2009-2015)

There is no U.S. Senate race in North Carolina in 2018.

HOUSE

Current: 2 (1D, 1R) of 13 representatives (15.4%)

  • Both (1D, 1R) women House incumbents are running for re-election this year.
  • A total of 6 (3D, 3R) women have represented NC in the U.S. House, including the two current women representatives. 

Filed:  10 (8D, 2R)

  • 6 (6D) women are running in 4 districts to challenge Republican incumbents in the general election.
  • 2 (1D, 1R) women are running in 2 districts to challenge members of their own party in the primary election.
  • There are no open seat contests for the U.S. House in North Carolina this year.

Districts with Women Candidates: 7 of 13
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  17.9% (10 of 56)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  28.6% (8 of 28)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 7.1% (2 of 28)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in North Carolina in 2018 is not a record high. Between 2008 and 2018, the high for women candidates filed to run for the U.S. House was 13 in 2016, when there was one open U.S. House seat being contested. This year, there are no open U.S. House seats in North Carolina.

  • The highest number of Democratic women running for the U.S. House in North Carolina between 2008 and 2018 is 8, the number of Democratic women that filed this year.

There are no statewide executive elections in North Carolina 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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