More women are running for office than ever before
But large gaps in the balance of candidate representation remain.
Introduction
In partnership with Indigo, we recently matched over 250,000 unique candidates from our database to the voter file. Now, for the first time, we can offer an unprecedented look at the demographics of those running for office across the country including breakdowns by gender, race, age, income and more.
In our first installment, we take a look at the growing number of women running for office in America– and the significant gaps that still remain.
Nearly 50% of Democratic candidates this cycle are women, up 9% from six years ago
Republicans have made small gains too, but remain well behind with women making up only 32% of their candidates.
Still, a significant majority of candidates this cycle are male
Men dominate particularly at the federal level, making up nearly 75% of the candidates running for Congress. At the local level, however, there is more parity with men making up only 55% of candidates.
Many positions on the ballot are dominated by either male or female candidates
Another noteworthy discovery– a number of positions on the ballot feature almost exclusively either male or female candidates.