PHOENIX — Vice President Kamala Harris is on track to become just the second woman nominated for president by a major party. But later in the vote, the number of women participating in congressional races has declined this year, after reaching record highs in 2020 and 2022.
The trend runs counter to a surge in female voter registration following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision to return abortion policy to the states in 2022. And despite the decline, totals are still higher than ever before 2018, when hundreds of women more than ever competed. the House of Representatives in midterm elections during the administration of former President Donald Trump.
But it’s still a notable decline: The Rutgers University-based Center For American Women and Politics, the preeminent organization tracking the issue, counts 466 women running as candidates of the main parties in the Chamber, down from 583 female candidates in 2020 and 2022.
One of the first primaries on the agenda, when congressional races resume next week after the summer break, exemplifies the trend. In Arizona’s 1st Congressional District — one of only 22 House races nationwide, according to the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter – Democratic voters will have a half-dozen options competing in the primaries for a fall campaign against Republican Rep. David Schweikert. Only one candidate, Marlene Galán-Woods, is a woman.
“This is difficult and not for the faint of heart,” Galán-Woods said about why there may be fewer women running this year. “But I like doing the hard thing.”
Galán-Woods’ political experience is limited compared to her main opponents, with a career in broadcast journalism that sometimes draws comparisons to Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake. (Galán-Woods doesn’t like the parallel.) Other candidates include Andrei Cherny, a businessman and former chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party who previously ran for Congress, and Amish Shah, a former member of the Arizona state House.
But the mother of five has won key endorsements, including from the state’s Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, with Galán-Woods arguing that her experience as a journalist has equipped her with skills that will make her an effective government official.
“I’m a very good listener, and that’s missing, it’s missing in government, it’s missing in discourse, it’s missing in our society,” Galán-Woods said of the overlap between her skills as a journalist and the skills needed to be an effective journalist. representative.
Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center For American Women and Politics, said the cause of this year’s decline is unclear. “We cannot at this point say why,” she said, noting that fewer men will also run for Congress in 2024.
One of the potential reasons Dittmar considered echoed Galán-Woods: “If women look at these institutions, and in this case, Congress, and think that this is not the place where they can get things done, they will not run.”
There have been some notable changes since Dobbs’ decision, which has been over two years in the making. CAWP found a 5.7% increase in the number of Democratic women running for state House nationwide, while there was a 6.5% decrease among Republican women.
“If they are motivated by Dobbs and abortion, where they can have an impact,” Dittmar said, then “at this point, it appears that the states, based on this decision, will really be a primary place to legislate on this issue. issue.”
When the Arizona State Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that a near-total ban on abortion from 1864 was applicable, it was the state legislature which approved the repeal of the ban, which was signed by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.
But beyond political considerations, things like “the toxicity, the unpopularity of Congress, can affect the willingness to run, as well as the perception that it is a toxic place to work,” Dittmar said at a press conference on July 23 .
“The perceived toxicity extends to the harassment and abuse faced by officeholders, and we know that this abuse is gendered and racialized and that it can discourage women, and especially women of color, from running,” she said.
Galán-Woods said she dealt with “certain things” while running as the only woman in her race. But she struck a defiant tone.
“I have a job to do. I have girls and women to protect and I have democracy to defend, and that’s what I focus on,” she said.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
