From the nation's leading source on all things women and politics. |
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The Money Race for the State Legislature |
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Today, CAWP released the latest report in our Women, Money, and Politics series, The Money Race for the State Legislature by Kira Sanbonmatsu and Claire Gothreau. This report examines fundraising for state legislative races in 2020 from both a donor and a recipient perspective. Some key findings:
- Women out-vote men, but men out-give women. Men outgave women 2 to 1 in all state legislative contests.
- However, elections with women candidates appear to mobilize women donors; women donors were more likely to give to candidates in contests with at least one woman candidate.
- The report finds significant differences among states. The top half of states in women’s state legislative representation were more likely to have a higher share of women contributors (39%) than the states that are lower on women’s state legislative representation (an average of 34%).
- While women of color are much less likely to be Republican, those who do are usually financially disadvantaged compared with Republican women candidates who are white.
- Most Democratic women of color candidates raised similar amounts to Democratic white women candidates.
- Democratic women fared better in fundraising than Republican women.
- Where there were gender differences in the amount of money raised from small contributions, women usually raised more from small contributions than their male opponents. Raising money in smaller denominations may require more time than raising money in larger denominations.
- Men were more likely to contribute to their own campaigns than women.
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Next Tuesday, November 16th at 2pm ET on Zoom, CAWP will convene a panel of experts to discuss The Money Race for the State Legislature, as well as the preceding reports in the Women, Money, and Politics series. In Unequal Voice: A Conversation About Why Men Out-Give Women in State Elections and Why Women Should Give More, panelists Kimberly Peeler-Allen (Co-Founder of Higher Heights and CAWP Visiting Practitioner), Stacy Schuster (Executive Director of Women for a Stronger New Jersey), and Ohio House of Representatives Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes, will discuss why women are underrepresented as contributors to state legislative and statewide executive elections, what can be done about it, and how unequal voice impacts the success of women candidates. The discussion will be moderated by the report’s lead author, CAWP Senior Scholar Kira Sanbonmatsu. Get caught up with the previous reports in the Women, Money, and Politics series, The Money Hurdle in the Race for Governor and Money Matters in the Fifty States, and register to attend the virtual event here. |
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women’s progress in American Politics
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New Record for Women in Congress and Other Election Results |
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A record 120 women are now serving in the U.S. House of Representatives following the swearing-in of Shontel Brown (D) after her win in the special election for Ohio’s 11th congressional district last week. Other key results for women in last week’s election:
- Winsome Sears (R) became the first woman of color to win election statewide in Virginia, as well as the first woman and first Black woman elected to the state’s lieutenant governorship.
- Michelle Wu (D) became the first woman, the first Asian woman, and first person of color elected as mayor of Boston, MA.
- Elaine O’Neal (D) became the first woman of color and first Black woman elected mayor of Durham, NC.
- Ellen Park (D) and Shama Haider (D) became the first Asian or Pacific Islander (API) women elected to the New Jersey legislature. At least one other API woman candidate is in a contest that remains uncalled by the Associated Press (Sadaf Jaffer (D), who has declared victory in the 16th legislative district Assembly race). More than 10% of the state identifies as API.
Get all of CAWP’s election results, with additional context and updated as races results continue to be decided, here. |
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CAWP is hiring! Our research projects team creates absolutely unrivaled resources that expand the breadth and depth of our understanding of women’s engagement in American political life. In recent years, this team has helped launched our Women, Money, and Politics series, which examines political fundraising for women candidates at often-overlooked levels of office, and made our information about women voters broader and more accessible than it has ever been.
Be part of the team that makes all of this happen. We’re hiring a research project coordinator to assist scholars and staff on major research projects, including project planning, engagement with scholarly literature, data collection, qualitative and quantitative analyses (including analysis of large datasets), and data visualization. They will also have the opportunity to contribute to our reports, research memos, and blogs.
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CAWP Grant Recipients in Washington Post
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In a recent post on The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, Jennifer Merolla, Rachel VanSickle-Ward, Ivy A.M. Cargile, Jill S. Greenlee, and Sarah Hayes write about caregiving and policy-making in the United States. In “ Most Americans want Congress to support child care and elder care, our research finds — even many Republicans” the group write that “Americans broadly support investment in care infrastructure, despite the current U.S. climate of high partisan polarization — putting Republican lawmakers’ opposition to such policies at odds not just with Americans generally but even, at times, with their own voters.”
Merolla, VanSickle-Ward, Cargile, and Greenlee are also recipients of 2020 CAWP Research Grants, part of an inaugural group of recipients whose projects represent a vast array of subjects that will expand our understanding of women’s political participation in America. Their project, Conceptualizing Caregiving and its Consequences for Attitudes and Engagement, asks how the caregiving responsibilities that women often take on structure their political engagement and policy attitudes, focusing in particular on the context of the ongoing pandemic. Learn more about their project, and the other 2020 CAWP Research Grant recipients, here and stay tuned for updates about the 2021 cohort! |
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