Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in New Jersey

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 New Jersey primary election on June 5, 2018, we outline the numbers and proportions of women who have filed as candidates for congressional 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 NJ primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 1 of 14 members of the New Jersey congressional delegation (7.1%)
Filed: 7 (6D, 1R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 13.2% (7 of 53)

SENATE

Current: 0 of 2 senators (0%)

  • No woman has ever served in the U.S. Senate from New Jersey.

Filed: 1 (1D)

  • Lisa McCormick (D) is the only woman candidate running for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey this year. She is challenging incumbent Senator Bob Menendez (D) in the Democratic primary.
  • Neither of the 2 Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate are women.

HOUSE

Current: 1 of 12 representatives (8.3%)

  • 6 (3D, 3R) women have represented New Jersey in the U.S. House, including current Representative Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D), who is the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House from New Jersey. 

Filed: 6 (5D, 1R)

  • Democratic incumbent Bonnie Watson-Coleman is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
  • 4 Democratic women are running for open seat contests in 2 districts (NJ-02 and NJ-11); 3 women are running in NJ-11, where a total of 5 candidates are competing for the Democratic nomination.
  • 1 Republican woman is challenging an incumbent in NJ-07. Lindsay Brown identifies as a progressive, despite competing in the Republican primary.

Districts with Women Candidates: 4 of 12
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  12.2% (6 of 49)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  18.5% (5 of 27)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 4.5% (1 of 22)

Recent history: The number of women who filed for major party candidacy for the U.S. House in New Jersey in 2018 is not a record high. Between 2008 and 2018, the highest number of women candidates filed to run for the U.S. House was 10 in 2014, when there were 3 open U.S. House seats being contested. This year, there are 2 open U.S. House seats in New Jersey.

  • In the past decade, the highest number of Democratic women filed for the U.S. House was 6 in both 2012 and 2014. The highest number of Republican women filed for the U.S. House was 6 in 2010.

THERE ARE NO STATEWIDE EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS IN NEW JERSEY THIS YEAR.

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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