Election 2012: Women Candidates for Senate, House Top Records

More women than ever are general election candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in 2012, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP).

With primaries still to come in ten states, 17 (11D, 6R) women have won nominations for the U.S. Senate and 154 (110D, 44R) for the House. The previous records were 14 (6D, 5R) Senate nominees in 2010 and 141 (88D, 53R) House nominees in 2004.

Currently, 17 (13D, 4R) women serve in the Senate and 73 (49D, 24R) in the House. Three women also serve as non-voting delegates from Washington DC, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Women have worked hard to take advantage of this year of opportunity,” noted CAWP director Debbie Walsh, “Those efforts – including The 2012 Project, our own effort to spur more women to run – are paying off in the form of more women candidates, including many first-time candidates at the state and federal levels.”

In contrast to the upswing in congressional candidates, few women are running for governor this year. There are only 11 gubernatorial races, and only four women filed to run in any of those races. The two candidates still in the running are in the same state, New Hampshire, so there will be at most one woman candidate for governor in the general election. The number of women governors is certain to drop; among the six women currently serving, two are stepping down.

Complete information about women candidates in 2012 – along with background information about women in past elections – is available at cawp.rutgers.edu/summary.