Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Colorado

Kelly Dittmar

Gender Watch 2018From March to December 2018, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation (BLFF) and the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) partnered to offer Gender Watch 2018, which tracked, analyzed, and illuminated gender dynamics in the 2018 midterm elections. With the help of expert scholars and practitioners, Gender Watch 2018 furthered public understanding of how gender influences candidate strategy, voter engagement and expectations, media coverage, and electoral outcomes in campaigns. The blog below was written for Gender Watch 2018, as part of our collective effort to raise questions, suggest answers, and complicate popular discussions about gender’s role U.S. elections.

 

Ahead of the Colorado primary election on June 26, 2018, we outline the numbers and proportions of women who have filed as candidates for congressional and statewide office. The data below also provide points of historical comparison to give context to today’s presence and potential success of women candidates.

All data are provided from the Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. For a full list of the women candidates in Colorado primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 1 (1D) of 9 members of the Colorado congressional delegation (11.1%)
Filed: 5 (5D)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 20% (5 of 25)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators

No woman has ever served in the U.S. Senate from Colorado.

THERE IS NO U.S. SENATE CONTEST IN COLORADO THIS YEAR.

HOUSE

Current: 1 of 7 representatives (14.3%)

  • 4 (3D, 1R) women have served in the U.S. House from Colorado, including current Representative Diana DeGette (D). DeGette is running for re-election this year. 

Filed:  5 (5D)

  • 1 (1D) woman incumbent – Representative Diana DeGette (D) – is running for re-election.
  • 4 (4D) women are running as challengers, including 1 (1D) woman candidate challenging an incumbent (Diana DeGette) of her own party in CO-01 and 3 (3D) women candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican incumbents in November.
  • There are no women running for open seats in Colorado.

* 2 (2D) of 5 women candidates for U.S. House from Colorado are women of color, including 1 Black woman (Stephany Rose Spaulding) and 1 South Asian woman (Saira Rao). Colorado has never sent a woman of color to Congress.

Districts with Women Candidates: 4 of 7
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  20% (5 of 25)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  35.7% (5 of 14)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 11)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Colorado in 2018 is not a record high; in 2016, when there were no open seat races, 5 (4D, 1R) women ran for the U.S. House. This year, there is one open seat contest for the U.S. House in Colorado.

  • This year marks the highest number of Democratic women running for the U.S. House in Colorado between 2008 and 2018.

GOVERNOR

Current: 0
No woman has ever served as governor of Colorado.

Filed:  2 (2D)

  • Democrats Cary Kennedy (former state treasurer) and Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne are competing for Colorado’s open gubernatorial seat.

Percent of all Filed Gubernatorial Candidates (D/R):  25% (2 of 8)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  50% (2 of 4)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 4)

OTHER STATEWIDE ELECTED EXECUTIVE OFFICES

Current: 2 (1D, 1R) of 4 positions (excludes governor) (50%)

  • Incumbent Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne (D) is running for governor this year.
  • Incumbent Attorney General Cynthia Coffman (R) is not running for re-election; instead, she put her name forward as a candidate for governor at the Republican Party’s convention, where she was unsuccessful in moving her candidacy forward to the primary election.

Filed:  2 (1D, 1R)

  • Democrat Jena Griswold is running to challenge a Republican incumbent for secretary of state.
  • Republican Polly Lawrence is running for the open state treasurer position.
  • There are no women candidates for attorney general.

Percent of all Filed Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates (D/R): 20% (2 of 10)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates: 20% (1 of 5)
Percent of all Filed Republican Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates: 20% (1 of 5)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the statewide executive offices (other than governor) in Colorado in 2018 is not a record high. More women competed for these nominations in 2014 (4).

* All 4 (3D, 1R) women candidates for statewide executive office in Colorado, including governor, are White. Just one woman of color has ever been elected statewide in Colorado: Vikki Buckley (R), a Black woman, served as secretary of state from 1995-1999.

Kelly Dittmar headshot

Kelly Dittmar

Kelly Dittmar is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers–Camden and Director of Research and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She is the co-author of A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Representation Matters (Oxford University Press, 2018) (with Kira Sanbonmatsu and Susan J. Carroll) and author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns (Temple University Press, 2015).

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