Tag: Maine Legislature

A record number of women are running for the U.S. House, Senate and state legislatures this year – more than any other election in U.S. history. But in the two years before the 2018 midterm election, amid marches for women’s rights and the growing #MeToo movement, something shifted in a field that has historically paved an easier path for men: “Women are running whether or not Democrats and Republicans invite them to,” said Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, a political science professor at the University of Southern California. “It’s a sea change.” A record 3,379 women have won nomination for state legislatures across the country, breaking 2016’s record of 2,649, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. And 235 women won nominations in U.S. House races, breaking the previous 2016 record of 167. Twenty-two women won major-party nominations for U.S. Senate, breaking the record of 18 set in 2012. According to David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report – a nonpartisan group that analyzes campaigns and elections – women have won 43 percent of Democratic House primary races, and Republican women have won 13 percent of their party’s primaries. 26 for representation of women in the state legislature (25 percent) compared with the proportion of women in the state (50 percent). Hill, a law professor, had accused Thomas of sexual harassment. She’s expected to become the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts; no Republican candidate is running against her. “We’re not going to see 240 years of women’s underrepresentation in politics end in one election cycle,” Walsh said.