New Records for Women of Color Congressional Candidates in the 2020 Elections

Women of color have set new records for congressional candidacies in the 2020 elections, both as a whole and within various racial identifications, according to an analysis of candidate filings for the 2020 elections from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

This year, at least 267 (176D, 91R) women of color are major-party candidates for the U.S. Congress, including 249 (163D, 86R) candidates for the U.S. House and 18 (13D, 5R) candidates for the U.S. Senate who identify as Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, Latina, Middle Eastern or North African, Native American, and/or multiracial. These numbers and those below reflect total filed major-party candidates, inclusive of women who have already won or lost primaries, as well as those with primaries still to come. They do not include candidates for non-voting positions in the U.S. House.

CAWP began collecting data on candidate race identification in 2004, using a system of self-identification. Because this data relies primarily on candidate response to CAWP’s self-ID query, and our queries occasionally go unanswered, there remain a small number of candidates in CAWP’s database for whom we were unable to determine racial identification. This is alluded to when we say “at least” preceding a reported figure.

CAWP’s racial identification data for Asian or Pacific Islander (API), Black, Latina, and Native American women candidates begins in 2004. For women who identify as Middle Eastern or North African (MENA), our data collection begins in 2018. Multiracial women are included in counts for each group with which they identify, which is why adding numbers below will not match the total number for women of color candidates in 2020. Please follow the links below for detailed analyses, with data visualizations and historical comparisons, about each group’s candidacies in 2020, as well as notes on potential historic firsts in this election cycle.

• Asian or Pacific Islander women:
  • At least 41 (26D, 15R) API women are major-party congressional candidates in 2020; all are candidates for the U.S. House. This is a new record for API women overall congressional and House candidates.
  • No API women are major-party Senate candidates this year, a first since 2008.
• Black women:
  • At least 130 (98D, 32R) Black women are major-party congressional candidates in 2020. This is a new record.
  • At least 117 (89D, 28R) Black women are major-party candidates for the U.S. House. This is a new record.
  • At least 13 (9D, 4R) Black women are major-party candidates for the U.S. Senate. This is a new record.
• Latinas:
  • At least 75 (41D, 34R) Latinas are major-party congressional candidates in 2020. This is a new record.
  • At least 72 (39D, 33R) Latinas are major-party candidates for the U.S. House. This is a new record.
  • At least 3 (2D, 1R) Latinas are major-party candidates for the U.S. Senate. This is a new record.
• Middle Eastern or North African women:
  • At least 16 (11D, 5R) MENA women are major-party candidates for the U.S. House. As CAWP only began collecting data on MENA women in 2018, we do not have a comparison to previous cycles.
• Native American women:
  • At least 18 (9D, 9R) Native American women are major-party congressional candidates in 2020. This is a new record.
  • At least 15 (7D, 8R) Native American women are major-party candidates for the U.S. House. This is a new record.
  • At least 3 (2D, 1R) Native American women are major-party candidates for the U.S. Senate. This is a new record.