Women State Legislative Nominees Rise but Fall for Republicans; Likely New Record for Women Governors

The number of women nominees for state legislatures has risen compared to 2022, but those increases are concentrated among Democrats, according to new data about women nominees in 2024 from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Meanwhile, an all-woman gubernatorial contest in New Hampshire means there will almost certainly be a new record for women governors serving concurrently in 2025. Primary results remain too close to call in seven contests nationwide.

CAWP will hold a virtual press briefing on October 8th, 2024 at 1pm to discuss this data and other information and emerging themes for women in the 2024 elections. Participants will include CAWP Director Debbie Walsh, Director of Research Kelly Dittmar, Director of Data Chelsea Hill, and Senior Scholar Kira Sanbonmatsu.

Register to Attend

“As we’ve seen with congressional nominees this year, gains this year for state nominees are concentrated in the Democratic Party,” said CAWP Director Debbie Walsh. “Democratic women are nearing or surpassing parity in their party caucuses in statehouses around the country, but Republican women are being left behind. Women’s equality in political representation depends on this changing.”

CAWP’s new analysis, Post-Primary Analysis: Women in 2024 State Level Elections, reviews nominees for state legislative office in 2024 and compares those numbers to recent election years, controlling for variances between cycles. It also provides information about gubernatorial nominees, comparing these numbers to 2020, the last election cycle with an identical number of governors’ offices up for election. Finally, this analysis lists potential milestones for other statewide elective executive offices in 2024.
 

State Houses

• 2,861 (1,891D, 966R, 2I, 2NP) women are nominees for state House in 2024. The record for women state House nominees is 2,881, set in 2022; The record for Democratic women state House nominees is 1,947, set in 2018, and the record for Republican women state House nominees is 1,041, set in 2022. Because of the disparate number of states conducting state House elections across cycles, direct comparisons are difficult, so CAWP has provided analysis of states holding elections in this and recent previous cycles as a basis of comparison.
  
  • Comparing 2024, where 43 states have state House elections, to the same states in 2022 (when 45 states held state House elections), this surpasses the 2,760 women nominees in these states in 2022.
  • 1,891 Democratic women are nominees for state House in 2024, higher than the 1,758 who were nominees in the same states in 2022.
  • 966 Republican women are nominees for state House in 2024, lower than the 997 who were nominees in the same states in 2022.
• Women are 37.6% of all state House nominees in 2024, but they are 49.8% of all Democratic state House nominees and just 25.4% of Republican state House nominees.
  
  • For context, Democratic women are at or above parity with Democratic men in 30 of 49 state House chambers. By contrast, there are no state House chambers where Republican women match or exceed the representation of Republican men.
• Democratic women candidates won state House primaries at the highest rate of any gender by party subgroup, higher than Democratic men, Republican women, and Republican men.
  
  • 87.4% of Democratic women state House candidates won their primary contests, compared with 80.3% of Democratic men, 77.4% of Republican women, and 79% of Republican men.
     

State Senates

• 624 (415D, 192R, 17NP) women are nominees for state Senate in 2024. The record for women state Senate nominees is 740, set in 2022. The record for Democratic women state Senate nominees is 473, set in 2022, and the record for Republican women state Senate nominees is 250, set in 2022. The total number of state Senate seats up for election varies by year, informing these counts.
  
  • Across 30 states that have a matched number of state Senate seats up for election in 2024, 475 women are state Senate nominees in 2024, surpassing the 474 women nominees across the same states in 2022.
  • In these states, there are 313 Democratic women state Senate nominees, higher than the 298 who were nominees in 2022.
  • In these states, there are 145 Republican women state Senate nominees, lower than the 159 who were nominees in 2022.
• Women are 34.6% of all state Senate nominees in 2024, but they are 47.6% of all Democratic state Senate nominees and just 21.8% of all Republicans state Senate nominees.
• Democratic women candidates won state Senate primaries at the highest rate of any gender by party subgroup, higher than Democratic men, Republican women, and Republican men.
  
  • 83.3% of Democratic women state Senate candidates won their primary contests, compared with 79.3% of Democratic men, 69.6% of Republican women, and 75.1% of Republican men.

Governors

• 5 (4D, 1R) women are nominees for governor in 2024. There are 11 gubernatorial contests this year, and this number is higher than the number of nominees in the last cycle with the same number of contests; there were three women gubernatorial nominees in 2020.
• Women are 22.7% of all gubernatorial nominees in 2024. They are 36.4% of all Democratic gubernatorial nominees and 9.1% of Republican gubernatorial nominees.
• Democratic women candidates won gubernatorial primaries at the highest rate of any gender by party subgroup, higher than Democratic men, Republican women, and Republican men.
  
  • 40% of Democratic women gubernatorial candidates won their primary contests, compared with 30.4% of Democratic men, 14.3% of Republican women, and 22.7% of Republican men.
• Also of note, the New Hampshire gubernatorial race between Kelly Ayotte (R) and Joyce Craig (D) will almost certainly lead to a new record for women governors. None of the record 12 women governors currently serving are up for election this year, so this all-woman match-up will likely lead to a new record of 13 women governors concurrently serving. Should Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz win the presidential election, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan would ascend to the governorship, making history as the first Native American woman governor in the U.S. and the first woman governor of Minnesota. She would also bring the number of women governors up to 14.

For additional context, including potential milestones for women in statewide elective executive offices, see CAWP’s Post-Primary Analysis: Women in 2024 State Level Elections, and register to attend our briefing on women in the 2024 general election here.