DATA POINT: All-Women Senate Delegations

If, as expected, Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton names a woman to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Senator Al Franken, Minnesota will become the fourth state currently and the sixth state ever to have an all-female Senate delegation, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
California (the first state to be represented by two women in the Senate), New Hampshire, and Washington all have two women currently serving in the Senate. Kansas and Maine had all-female delegations in the past.
New Hampshire’s congressional delegation is currently all women, including the two senators and two women who hold the state’s seats in the House of Representatives. From 2013-2015, all of the Granite State’s top posts were held by women, with the first all-female congressional delegation along with a woman governor. Washington had a woman governor and two women senators from 2005-2013.

History of All-Women Senate Delegations

1993-2017
California: Barbara Boxer (D) and Dianne Feinstein (D)

2017-now
California: Dianne Feinstein (D) and Kamala Harris (D)

1996
Kansas: Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R) and Sheila Frahm (R)

1997-2013
Maine: Olympia J. Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R)

2001-now
Washington: Maria Cantwell (D) and Patty Murray (D)

2011-2017
New Hampshire: Kelly Ayotte (R) and Jeanne Shaheen (D)

2017-now
New Hampshire: Maggie Hassan (D) and Jeanne Shaheen (D)

TBD Minnesota:
Amy Klobuchar (D) and TBD

Other All-Women Senate Delegation Landmarks

2005-2013
Washington: Maria Cantwell (D) and Patty Murray (D), Senate
Christine O. Gregoire, Governor

2013-2015
New Hampshire: Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Kelly Ayotte (R), Senate
Ann McLane Kuster (D) and Carol Shea Porter (D), House of Representatives
(entire House delegation)
Maggie Hassan (D), Governor

2015-2017
New Hampshire: Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Kelly Ayotte (R), Senate
Maggie Hassan (D), Governor

2017-now
ew Hampshire: Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Maggie Hassan, D, Senate
Ann McLane Kuster (D) and Carol Shea Porter (D), House of Representatives
(entire House delegation)

States That Have Had All-Women Senate Delegations