September 12, 2023

New on the CAWP blog: CAWP Research Associate Shikshya Adhikari takes a look at new voter turnout data and finds that a broad array of women are energized to vote ahead of 2024 presidential and congressional elections. In “Women of Color and Young Women are Energized to Vote,” Adhikari analyzes voter turnout data from recent elections, as well as issue polling, and finds that women, particularly young women and women of color, are highly motivated by reproductive healthcare access and abortion restrictions to head to the polls.

In the past two years, women have expanded on their pre-existing turnout advantages over men in places where ballot initiatives regarding abortion access have been in play. In Ohio, where voters recently blocked an attempt to make ballot initiatives more difficult to pass ahead of a November vote on reproductive health care access, women made up 60% of voters who turned out early for the August 2023 vote despite not voting in the 2022 midterm, and Black and young voters turned out at higher rates than they did in the 2022 primary election among early voters. “This data indicates that prioritizing the abortion issue could help Democrats further mobilize women of color and young women,” Adhikari writes.

Read the full piece on the CAWP blog.

Special congressional primary elections were held recently in Utah and Rhode Island, and runoff elections were also held in Mississippi’s 2023 state elections. Here are some key results for women candidates:

• In Utah, Celeste Maloy, a former staffer for departing Representative Chris Stewart, will face state Senator Kathleen Riebe in the special election in the state’s second congressional district. With women being both major-party nominees, this election will almost certainly result in Utah sending its fifth woman to Congress. Just one woman, Mia Love, has represented Utah in Congress in the 21st century.
• Meanwhile in Rhode Island, zero women advanced to the special general election in RI-01, meaning the state’s congressional delegation will remain all-male.
• Following runoffs in Mississippi’s 2023 state legislative elections, potential gains remain elusive for women in the state. Women are 12 of 60 (20.0%) major-party nominees for state Senate and 23 of 138 (16.7%) major-party nominees for the state House. Women did not break records for total major-party nominations for either chamber in 2023. Read full results for the Mississippi primary here.



Stay up to date with women candidates in this and every election year with CAWP’s Election Watch.

Kelly Dittmar on the First Presidential Debate of 2024 

The 2024 Republican presidential primary is well underway, and CAWP Director of Research Kelly Dittmar analyzed the first debate in her Forbes piece, “Nikki Haley’s Debate Performance Might Resonate With Women, But Camaraderie Won’t Win The Republican Primary.” Taking a hard look at the debate strategy of former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Dittmar analyzes, using a gender lens, how Haley tries to pivot between deploying her identity as a woman to set herself apart from the other candidates and maintaining the default Republican antipathy towards identity politics. Haley simultaneously seemed to be aiming for a moderate lane in the Republican primary, perhaps positioning herself as a viable general election candidate for a party whose policy positions are deeply unpopular. But Dittmar noted the clear limitations inherent in these contradictions. “First Haley needs to win over Republican primary voters,” Dittmar writes. “And, since 2016, those voters have shown little desire for level-headedness or moderation, consensus, or women’s solidarity.” Read the full piece here.