Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Tennessee

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 Tennessee primary election on August 2, 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 Tennessee primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 2 of 11 members of the Tennessee congressional delegation (18.2%)
Filed: 13 (7D, 6R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 24.1% (13 of 54)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators

*No woman has ever served in the U.S. Senate from Tennessee.

Filed:  1 (1R)

  • Current U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R) is running for Tennessee’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Percent of all Filed Senate Candidates (D/R):  20% (1 of 5)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Senate Candidates:  0% (0 of 3)
Percent of all Filed Republican Senate Candidates: 50% (1 of 2) 

HOUSE

Current: 2 of 9 representatives (22.2%)

  • 6 (2D, 4R) women have served in the U.S. House from Tennessee, including 3 (1D, 2R) who won special elections to fill vacancies caused by their husbands’ deaths. 

Filed:  12 (7D, 5R)

  • Neither incumbent women representatives from Tennessee (2R) are running for re-election; Representative Marsha Blackburn is running for the U.S. Senate and Representative Diane Black is running for governor.
  • 3 (1D, 2R) women are running as challengers to incumbents of their own party
  • 4 (3D, 1R) women are running to challenge incumbents of the opposing party in the general election
  • 5 (3D, 2R) women are running for open seats in 2 U.S. House districts in Tennessee

* 4 (3D, 1R) of 12 women candidates for U.S. House from Tennessee identify as women of color, including 3 (2D, 1R) Black women and 1 (1D) Latina. Tennessee has never sent a woman of color to Congress.

Districts with Women Candidates: 7 of 9
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  24.5% (12 of 49)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  35% (7 of 20)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 17.2% (5 of 29)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Tennessee in 2018 is greater than any other year between 2008 and 2018. There are three open seat contests for the U.S. House in Tennessee in 2018. In 2010, when three seats were open, 11 (4D, 7R) women competed for major party nominations.

  • This year marks the highest number of Democratic women, but not of Republican women, running for the U.S. House in Tennessee between 2008 and 2018.

GOVERNOR

Current: 0
*No woman has ever served as governor of Tennessee.

Filed:  4 (1D, 3R)

  • 4 (1D, 3R) women are running for the open gubernatorial seat in Tennessee, including U.S. Representative Diane Black (R).

Percent of all Filed Gubernatorial Candidates (D/R):  44.4% (4 of 9)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates:  33.3% (1 of 3)
Percent of all Filed Republican Gubernatorial Candidates: 50% (3 of 6)

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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