Women May Gain Ground in New Jersey and New Mexico

Primary elections were held on Tuesday in five states: Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Full results for women in these races are available on this post on our Election Analysis page; there is one undecided race featuring a woman candidate, so the full results post will update as this contest is decided. 

Iowa

• Iowa will maintain its current level of women’s representation in the U.S. House, with both (2R) incumbent women favored to win re-election in all-woman general election contests.

Montana

• Montana is likely to remain a state that has no women representing them in the U.S. Congress, as the sole woman nominee for U.S. House will challenge an incumbent in a contest where the incumbent is favored. No woman has served in Congress from Montana since 1943 when Jeanette Rankin, the first woman in history to serve in the U.S. Congress, left office.
• Women are all but assured to maintain their current level of representation (three offices) among Montana’s statewide elective executive officeholders. Incumbents Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras (R) and Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen (R) are favored to win re-election, and a new woman will win the all-woman contest for superintendent of public instruction, replacing outgoing incumbent Elsie Arntzen (R), who was defeated in her bid for the U.S. House. 

New Jersey

• New Jersey could increase its level of women’s representation in the U.S. House. Both (2D) incumbent women are favored to win re-election, and Sue Altman (D) is the Democratic nominee in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, where she will challenge incumbent U.S. Representative Tom Kean, Jr. in a contest that Cook Political Report currently rates as a toss-up. No more than two women have served simultaneously in New Jersey’s congressional delegation. 
• In New Jersey, neither woman major-party candidate for the U.S. Senate was successful, ensuring that New Jersey remains a state that has never sent a woman to the U.S. Senate. 

New Mexico

• Women are the majority (66.7%) of major-party nominees for U.S. House in New Mexico and could increase their representation by one in election 2024 to become an all-woman U.S. House delegation. Both (2D) incumbent women are favored to win re-election, and former U.S. Representative Yvette Herrell (R) will challenge incumbent U.S. Representative Gabe Vazquez (D) in a contest that Cook Political Report currently rates as a toss-up. New Mexico formerly sent an all-woman delegation to the U.S. House in 2021, where three women served simultaneously through January 3, 2023.
• Nella Domenici (R) – daughter of former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) – has secured the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in New Mexico, where she will challenge incumbent Senator Martin Heinrich (D) in a contest currently rated as “Solid Democrat” by Cook Political Report. If successful in November, Domenici would be the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate from New Mexico and the second woman senator to hold the same office as her father. 

South Dakota

• South Dakota is likely to remain a state that has no women representing them in the U.S. Congress, as the sole woman nominee for U.S. House will challenge an incumbent in a contest where the incumbent is favored. No woman has served in Congress from South Dakota since 2019.

For more information, see the full analysis of how women fared in the June 4th contests on our Election Analysis page. For primary results summaries from other states and full results, including candidate lists, summaries, and historical comparisons, see CAWP’s Election Watch.