Tuesday’s primaries continued a trend: Women are disproportionately coming out winners in some of this year’s most competitive races.
Overall, women have won around 60 percent of May primary races according to the Center for American Women and Politics—and that bodes well for our ability to actually increase women’s representation in state legislatures, governor’s offices and Congress this year. It’s about time!
This week was an especially good one for women of color. Stacey Abrams became the first black woman nominated for governor, and 11 of the 26 women US House nominees in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas are women of color.
Let’s give these women a boost now that they’re heading into the general election: Chip in $5 to Stacey Abrams and our 7 other featured candidates who won primaries in May and who can flip seats this fall.
If this overperformance trend keeps up, women could make up more than 40 percent of the nominees heading into November. That doesn’t sound too impressive—until you realize women made up about 22 percent of pre-primary nominees. Underdogs like Amy McGrath and Kara Eastman even managed to win in upsets against established male favorites.
Women’s political representation is increasing in another way too: Fundraising. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 39 House candidates have raised more than 50 percent of their individual contributions from women. That’s triple the number who reported this level of woman-powered fundraising in March.
It’s becoming clearer by the day: This fall’s Blue Wave will be a Pink Wave. Chip in $5 now to the candidates who can bring that wave crashing home.