309 Women Are Now Running for Congress. That’s a Record.

And that number keeps growing.

Protesters at the Women's March in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2017Michael Nigro/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

A record-setting number of women are running for seats in the US House of Representatives, a new analysis by the Associated Press finds. The 309 women who so far are seeking House seats this year breaks the previous record of 298, set during the 2012 election cycle. The number is expected to grow even higher, as candidate filing deadlines have not yet passed in more than half of states.

According to the AP, which used data compiled by the Center for Women and American Politics, most of the women candidates are Democrats—one of many ways in which women’s participation in Democratic politics has surged in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s election and the #MeToo movement. Democratic women candidates in 2018 thus far outnumber their Republican counterparts more than 3-to-1, the highest ratio for any congressional election year dating back to 1992.

The increase in women candidates, however, probably won’t lead to gender equality in Congress’ lower chamber. Just 19 percent of House seats are currently occupied by women, and some high-profile contenders—such as Marie Newman, a Bernie Sanders-backed candidate who challenged Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), a conservative incumbent Democrat—have already lost their primary battles. Men still vastly outnumber the women seeking office.

Record numbers of women are running for other political offices, as well. The AP notes that 40 women have declared their candidacies in gubernatorial races, which beats a previous record of 34 set in 1999.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate