Primary Outlook: Women Candidates in North Dakota

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 North Dakota 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 ND primary races for congressional and statewide offices, see CAWP’s Election Watch page.

CONGRESS

Current: 1 (1D) of 3 members of the ND congressional delegation (33.3%)
Filed: 2 (1D, 1R)
Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 25% (2 of 8)

SENATE

Current: 1 of 2 senators

  • Just 2 (2D) women have represented North Dakota in the U.S. Senate, including current Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D). Heitkamp is up for re-election this year.

Filed: 1 (1D)

  • Incumbent Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D) is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. She is the only woman in the U.S. Senate race in North Dakota.

Percent of all Filed Congressional Candidates (D/R): 33.3% (1 of 3)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  100% (1 of 1)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 0% (0 of 2)

HOUSE

Current: 0 of 1 representative (0%)

  • No woman has ever held North Dakota’s at-large seat in the U.S. House.

Filed:  1 (1R)

  • Tiffany Abentroth is running for the Republican nomination for the state’s open House seat.

Districts with Women Candidates: 1 of 1
Percent of all Filed House Candidates (D/R):  20% (1 of 5)
Percent of all Filed Democratic House Candidates:  0% (0 of 1)
Percent of all Filed Republican House Candidates: 25% (1 of 4)

Recent history: Just 2 women (1D, 1R) have run for major party nominations for North Dakota’s at-large House seat in the past decade, including this year’s Republican woman candidate.

GOVERNOR

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

THERE IS NO GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION IN NORTH DAKOTA THIS YEAR.

OTHER STATEWIDE ELECTED EXECUTIVE OFFICES

Current: 3 (2R, 1NP) of 12 positions (excludes governor) (16.7%)

*Only 5 of 12 statewide elected executive offices are up for election in North Dakota this year.

  • The 3 (2R, 1NP) incumbent women in statewide elected executive office in North Dakoata (Treasurer Kelly Schmidt-R, Superintendent of Public Instruction Kelly Baesler-NP, and Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak-R) do not have elections in 2018. They will hold their seats into 2019.

Filed:  2 (2D)

  • 2 Democratic women are running to challenge Republican incumbents for tax commissioner and public service commissioner (seat 1).

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: 33.3% (2 of 6)
Percent of all Filed Republican Statewide Executive (other than governor) Candidates: 0% (0 of 6)

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).

Read more