Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in Maine

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 Maine primary election on June 12, 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 Maine primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 1 (1R) of 4 members of the ME congressional delegation (25%)
Filed: 1 (1D)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 10% (1 of 10)

SENATE

Current: 1 of 2 senators

  • 3 (3R) women have been elected to the U.S. Senate from Maine, including current Senator Susan Collins (R). Collins is not up for re-election this year.

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

HOUSE

Current: 1 (1D) of 2 representatives (50%)

  • Incumbent Representative Chellie Pingree (D) is running for re-election this year.
  • A total of 3 (1D, 2R) women have represented ME in the U.S. House, including 2 women (Olympia Snowe and Margaret Chase Smith) who also served in the U.S. Senate.

Filed:  1 (1D)

  • Incumbent Representative Chellie Pingree (D) is the only woman candidate for the U.S. House (and Congress) from Maine this year.

Districts with Women Candidates: 1 of 2
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  14.3% (1 of 7)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  20% (1 of 5)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 2)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in Maine in 2018 is lower than any other year between 2008 and 2018.

  • The highest number of women running for the U.S. House in Maine between 2008 and 2016 was 4 in 2014 and 2016. In 2014, 1 of Maine’s 2 House seats was open. This year, neither of Maine’s House seats are open.

GOVERNOR

Current: 0

  • No woman has ever served as governor of Maine.
  • Maine is the only state that has never elected a woman to a statewide office. The governor is the only statewide elected executive in Maine.

Filed: 5 (4D, 1R)
Percent of all Filed Gubernatorial Candidates (D/R):  45.5% (5 of 11)
Percent of all Filed Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates:  57.1% (4 of 7)
Percent of all Filed Republican Gubernatorial Candidates: 35% (1 of 4)

Recent history: Just 2 (1D, 1R) women have been major party nominees for governor of Maine: Libby Mitchell (D) in 2010 and Susan Collins (R) in 1994.

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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