Women Sweep Primaries in Wyoming, Poised to Elect First Woman to the U.S. Senate
Congressional primaries were held on Tuesday in three states: Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming. Due to the reliance on mail-in voting, many races remain too close to call, so this post will be updated as results are determined. Full context about women in the 2020 elections, including candidate lists, summaries, results from previous primaries, and historical comparisons, are available via the Center for American Women and Politics’ Election Watch page.
Among the most notable results for women thus far:
- All women major-party nominees for U.S. Congress in Wyoming are women in 2020, including both U.S. Senate nominees and both nominees for the at-large U.S. House seat. This all but guarantees that Wyoming will elect its first woman to the U.S. Senate. In that contest, former Representative Cynthia Lummis (R) is currently favored.
- Kat Cammack (R) won the Republican nomination in the open seat created by Representative Ted Yoho’s retirement in Florida’s 3rd congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report, suggesting that this is a likely pick-up for Republican women.
- Alyse Galvin (D) won the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Representative Don Young (R) in Alaska’s at-large congressional district. Galvin was the Democratic nominee in 2018, when she lost to Young by 6.6 points. This contest is currently rated as “Lean Republican” by Cook Political Report.
- As a result of Tuesday’s primaries, there will be at least five all-woman U.S. House contests in Florida in November. Together with Wyoming’s all-woman congressional contests, this brings the total number of contests where a woman will face a woman to 48, far eclipsing the previous record of 33 all-woman congressional contests set in 2018. For more information on these races historically and in 2020, visit CAWP's fact sheet, Woman vs Woman: Congressional and Gubernatorial Races.
Alaska
U.S. Senate
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) is the only woman to ever serve in the U.S. Congress from Alaska. She has served in the U.S. Senate since 2002, when she was appointed by her father – who resigned his Senate seat to become Governor of Alaska – to fill the vacancy he created. Murkowski is not up for re-election this year.
No women ran to challenge incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan (R) in Alaska this year.
U.S. House
No woman has ever represented Alaska in the U.S. House. In 2020, Alyse Galvin won the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Representative Don Young (R) in Alaska’s at-large congressional district. Galvin was the Democratic nominee in 2018, when she lost to Young by 6.6 points. This contest is currently rated as “Lean Republican” by Cook Political Report.
Florida
U.S. House
Women are currently 8 (8D) of 27 members of the Florida delegation to the U.S. House (29.6%)
Women are 22 (14D, 8R) of 52 (42.3%) major-party nominees already selected for U.S. House in Florida, including 14 of 25 (56%) Democrats and 8 of 27 (29.6%) Republicans already selected. This year, 14 (4D, 10R) women candidates were unsuccessful in their primary bids for the U.S. House.
- All 8 (8D) incumbent women will advance to the general election for the U.S. House in Florida.
- 6 (6D) incumbent women will be challenged by other women in all-woman general election contests.
- Incumbent Representative Val Demings (D) was unopposed for the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 10th congressional district. She will be challenged by Vennia Francois (R) in an all-woman general election contest currently rated as “Solid Democratic” by Cook Political Report.
- Incumbent Representative Kathy Castor (D) was unopposed for the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 14th congressional district. She will be challenged by Christine Quinn (R) in an all-woman general election contest currently rated as “Solid Democratic” by Cook Political Report.
- Incumbent Representative Lois Frankel (D) won the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 21st congressional district. She will be challenged by Laura Loomer (R) in an all-woman general election contest currently rated as “Solid Democratic” by Cook Political Report.
- Incumbent Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) won the Democratic nomination in Florida's 23rd congressional district. She will be challenged by Carla Spalding (R) in an all-woman general election contest currently rated as “Solid Democratic” by Cook Political Report.
- Incumbent Representative Frederica Wilson (D) won the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 24th congressional district. She will be challenged by Lavern Spicer (R) in an all-woman general election contest currently rated as “Solid Democratic” by Cook Political Report.
- Incumbent Representative Donna Shalala (D) was unopposed for the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 27th congressional district. She will be challenged by Maria Salazar (R) in an all-woman general election contest currently rated as “Likely Democratic” by Cook Political Report. This is a re-match of the 2018 election, when Salazar was defeated by Shalala by six points.
- Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D), who was first elected in 2018, is the only incumbent woman not currently favored to win her re-election outright. She was unopposed for the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 26th congressional district, but her re-election contest is currently rated as a toss-up by Cook Political Report.
- 6 (6D) incumbent women will be challenged by other women in all-woman general election contests.
- 2 (1D, 1R) women are nominees in open-seat contests in Florida’s 3rd and 19th congressional districts.
- Kat Cammack (R) won the Republican nomination in Florida’s 3rd congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report, suggesting that this is a likely pick-up for Republican women.
- Cindy Banyai (D) won the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 19th congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report.
- 12 (5D, 7R) women will run as challengers to incumbents in November.
- In addition to the 6 (6R) women challenging incumbent women cited above, 6 (5D, 1R) women will challenge incumbent men in November. All contests currently favor the incumbents.
- Donna Deegan (D) was unopposed in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Representative John Rutherford (R) in Florida’s 4th congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report.
- Dana Cottrell (D) was unopposed in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Representative Daniel Webster (R) in Florida’s 11th congressional district. Cottrell was the Democratic nominee in 2018, when she lost to Webster by 30.3 points. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report.
- Kimberly Walker (D) was unopposed in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Representative Gus Bilirakis (R) in Florida’s 12th congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report.
- Anna Paulina Luna (R) won the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Representative Charlie Crist (D) in Florida’s 13th congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Democratic” by Cook Political Report.
- Margaret Good (D) was unopposed in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Representative Vern Buchanan (R) in Florida’s 16th congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Likely Republican” by Cook Political Report.
- Pam Keith (D) won the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Representative Brian Mast (R) in Florida’s 18th congressional district. This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report.
- In addition to the 6 (6R) women challenging incumbent women cited above, 6 (5D, 1R) women will challenge incumbent men in November. All contests currently favor the incumbents.
Of the 22 (14D, 8R) women major-party nominees for the U.S. House from Florida, 12 (7D, 5R) are women of color, including 7 (4D, 3R) Black women, 3 (1D, 2R) Latinas, 1 (D) Asian woman, and 1 (D) woman who identifies as Middle Eastern (Lebanese).
Wyoming
U.S. Senate
No woman has ever served in the U.S. Senate from Wyoming, but that is all but guaranteed to change in 2021. Both major-party nominees for the open U.S. Senate seat in Wyoming are women this year. Former Representative Cynthia Lummis (R) is the Republican nominee and Merav Ben-David (D) is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.
This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report.
U.S. House
A Republican woman has held Wyoming’s at-large U.S. House seat since 1995; Representative Barbara Cubin (R) served from 1995 to 2009, Representative Cynthia Lummis (R) served from 2009 to 2017, and current Representative Liz Cheney (R) took the seat in 2017. Cheney is the Republican nominee for re-election this year. She will be challenged by Democratic nominee Lynette Grey Bull (D) – who is Native American – in an all-woman contest in November. No woman of color has ever represented Wyoming in the U.S. Congress.
This contest is currently rated as “Solid Republican” by Cook Political Report.
