August 16, 2022

CAWP’s News & Notes is taking a hiatus for the remainder of August. Our next newsletter will arrive on September 13th. We hope everyone enjoys what is left of the summer!

Address confidentiality programs allow survivors of intimate partner violence to shield their public records, including their voter registration information, allowing them to participate in public life while minimizing the risk of further harassment or violence. CAWP grant recipient Dr. Emily M. Farris, an associate professor at Texas Christian University (TCU), has created a new site that allows users to find out what protections are available in their own states and nationwide; it is an important new tool for survivors to understand security measures they can rely on, as well as for activists and legislators to see places where further action must be taken — nine states still have no address confidentiality program. In a conversation between Dr. Farris, her undergraduate research assistant on the project Caledonia Stretlow, and TCU communications, Dr. Farris says, “For survivors, the fear that their abusers may find them prevents them from creating public records with their addresses on them, such as registering to vote. The accessibility of survivors’ addresses on public records…poses a real threat to individuals seeking protection from abusers.” Read the full conversation here and explore the new address confidentiality program tool here.

CAWP is proud to have contributed funding for this project. Learn more about CAWP Research Grants and all the projects these grants support here.

Primary Day

Primary elections are happening today in Alaska and Wyoming, and, in Alaska, voters are also casting ballots in the special election for the state’s at-large U.S. House district, which has been vacant since the death of long-time Representative Don Young. Two of three candidates in this special election are women: former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and former Alaska state Representative Mary Sattler Peltola. Either of these women would be the first woman to serve in the U.S. House from Alaska. Meanwhile, in Wyoming, Representative Liz Cheney, who has enraged members of her own party for her consistency in criticizing Donald Trump’s attempts to overthrow the 2020 election, is battling to hold on to her seat in the Republican primary against a Trump-endorsed challenger. CAWP will be providing real-time results and analysis for these and other races on our Twitter account, and we’ll release full results for women candidates tomorrow morning on our Election Analysis page.

Results from Recent Elections

Over the past two weeks, elections were held in Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. Here are some key results for women candidates:

• Vermont is poised to send its first woman to Congress. State Senate President Pro Tem Becca Balint won the Democratic nomination for Vermont’s at-large U.S. House seat, and she will compete in a general election that favors her party. Vermont is the last state in the country that has never sent a woman to Congress.
• In all of American history prior to 2022, there have only ever been four woman vs. woman gubernatorial general elections. There are already five this year alone. Following primaries in Arizona and Michigan, we now have five gubernatorial contests that will be decided between two women: Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, and Oregon. Learn more about all-women general elections for governor and Congress this year and historically at this CAWP fact sheet.

Find full results from the August 2nd primaries here and for the August 4th and 9th primaries here.

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