Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Florida

August 23, 2018

From 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 Florida primary election on August 28, 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 Florida primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 7 (6D, 1R) of 29 members of the Florida congressional delegation (24.1%)
Filed: 30 (20D, 10R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 28% (30 of 107)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators

Just one woman has served in the U.S. Senate from Florida.

Filed: 0

No women are in the running as major-party candidates for the U.S Senate in Florida to challenge incumbent Senator Bill Nelson (D) this year.

Percent of all Filed Senate Candidates (D/R): 0% (0 of 3)

HOUSE

Current: 7 (6D, 1R) of 27 representatives (25.9%)

6 of 7 incumbent women representatives are running for re-election; Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is not running for re-election this year.

Filed: 30 (20D, 10R)

All 6 Democratic incumbent women representatives are running for re-election.
11 (5D, 6R) women are running in open seat contests in 4 districts; 8 (2D, 6R) of these women are running for Florida’s 27th congressional district, the seat currently held by retiring Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R).
13 (9D, 4R) women are running as challengers, including 2 (1D, 1R) women candidates who are challenging incumbent members of their own party in the primary and 11 (8D, 3R) women candidates who are seeking to challenge incumbents of the opposing party this fall.

* Of the 30 women candidates for the U.S. House in Florida, 18 (8D, 10R) are women of color. In fact, all of the Republican women candidates for the U.S. House in Florida are women of color. In all, 8 (4D, 4R) women candidates, including 2 (2D) incumbents, identify as Black; 7 (2D, 5R) women candidates identify as Latina; and 3 (2D, 1R), including 1 incumbent, identify as Asian/Pacific-Islander.

Districts with Women Candidates: 19 of 27
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R): 28.8% (30 of 104)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates: 37.7% (20 of 53)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 19.6% (10 of 51)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Florida in 2018 matches the number (30) in 2016, the highest between 2008 and 2018.

This year marks the highest number of Democratic women running for the U.S. House in Florida between 2008 and 2018, but the number of Republican women candidates this year is not the highest in the same period.

GOVERNOR

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

Filed: 1 (1D)

Former U.S. Representative Gwen Graham is the only major-party candidate for governor of Florida.

Percent of all Filed Gubernatorial Candidates (D/R): 6.7% (1 of 15)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates: 14.3% (1 of 7)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 8)

OTHER STATEWIDE ELECTED EXECUTIVE OFFICES

Current: 1 (1R) of 4 positions (excludes governor) (25%)

Incumbent Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) is term-limited and cannot run for re-election this year.

Filed: 3 (1D, 2R)

All 3 women candidates for statewide elected executive offices (other than governor) are running in open seat contests, including 2 (1D, 1R) women candidates for commissioner of agriculture and 1 (1R) woman candidate for attorney general.
None of the women running for statewide elected executive office in Florida are women of color; only 1 (1R) woman of color – former Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll – has served in statewide elected executive office in Florida.

Percent of all Filed Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates (D/R): 23.1% (3 of 13)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates: 16.7% (1 of 6)
Percent of all Filed Republican Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates: 28.6% (2 of 7)

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).