October 29, 2024

With Election Day just a week away, women candidates across the country are poised to make history and challenge records. We will be tracking the results closely to bring you the latest updates on these pivotal races. 

We’ve assembled everything you need to stay informed on election night. CAWP’s 2024 Election Results Tracker will provide up-to-the-minute updates throughout the night and until all races are called. The tracker will follow the outcomes for women candidates in congressional, gubernatorial, and statewide executive races, compare current officeholders to historic records, and offer a breakdown of winners by race and ethnicity. It will also include sortable lists of 2025 officeholders and highlight non-incumbent women elected to Congress.

You can also find a curated collection of research about Black women’s political behavior, experiences, and impact in U.S. politics, in CAWP’s expert insights post called “Black Women’s Politics Research Spotlight.” This post offers both an important glimpse into the robust research already done on Black women’s politics and key findings that should inform our understanding of current political dynamics. 

Be sure to follow CAWP on Twitter and Instagram for real-time updates on major wins or losses on election day. Learn more about our election resources here.

Join the Eagleton Institute of Politics on Wednesday, November 6, at 10:30 am ET for a special post-election webinar analyzing the results of the 2024 presidential election. A longstanding Eagleton program, The Morning After offers expert analysis of the previous day’s election. Debbie Walsh, director of CAWP, will share her insights alongside:

• Moderator Jonathan Holloway – the 21st president of Rutgers University, historian, and distinguished professor
• Professor Ronald Chen – associate dean for academic affairs, university professor, distinguished professor of law, Judge Leonard I. Garth scholar, and faculty associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics
• Mike DuHaime – CEO at MAD Global, Eagleton adjunct faculty member
• Kimberly Peeler-Allen – principal at Peeler Allen Consulting, visiting practitioner at CAWP

Register today.

Jo Ann Davidson, the first woman speaker of the Ohio House and a longtime friend and supporter of the Center for American Women and Politics, passed away on Friday, at the age of 97. She leaves behind a legacy of advancement, opening doors for women in politics and public service. 

Davidson served in the Ohio House from 1980 to 2001 and was speaker from 1995 to 2000. She left the Ohio Legislature due to term limits and was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee in 2005. 

She was an advocate for bringing more Republican women into elective office with the establishment of the Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute. The namesake institute continues her mission to inspire and prepare hundreds of Republican women to run for office.

We at CAWP are grateful to Jo Ann for her unwavering support of our work. She always made herself available to us, sharing her wisdom as we planned our national Forums for Women State Legislators or developed research projects on topics such as the impact of women state legislators or women’s routes to elective office. 

Learn more about Jo Ann Davidson’s extraordinary life here.

Last week, with generous funding from the Crimsonbridge Foundation, CAWP brought together representatives from NEW Leadership® partner institutions nationwide for a three-day summit focused on advancing the program and strengthening the national network. NEW Leadership®, a nonpartisan, multi-day residential public leadership training program for college students, addresses women’s underrepresentation in politics. It educates students about the important role politics plays in their lives, introduces them to successful women leaders, and encourages them to become more involved in the political process. The convening gave NEW Leadership® National Network partners, who represented colleges and universities from 16 states, an opportunity to share best practices, insights on engaging students, ideas for tailoring curricula to regional needs, and strategies for expanding the program and ensuring its future in uncertain political times. 

“With women’s representation in elected office still lagging and student voices often absent from policymaking, the urgency to strengthen and expand programs like NEW Leadership® has never been clearer. This summit provided a vital opportunity for Network partners to connect, collaborate, and amplify our collective impact," said Jean Sinzdak, associate director of CAWP. 

For more information or to locate a NEW Leadership® partner near you, click here.

• CAWP is honored to partner with the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women (NOBEL Women), the only network of Black women elected state legislators in the country, to co-host the 2025 Lois M. DeBerry Leadership Institute. Established in 2002, the Institute is a training program designed to help Black women develop the expertise and networks they need to become public leaders. The program is open to women planning to run for office after 2025, especially those interested in pursuing state legislative seats, and women currently serving in state legislative offices who are looking to run for higher office or advance their leadership within the legislature. The 2025 Institute will convene in January 2025 with a 3-4 day conference at Rutgers–New Brunswick. The deadline to apply is November 8th. More information on the curriculum, program fee, and application is available here. 

• CAWP is hiring a Program and Events Coordinator to manage logistics for public programming, educational initiatives, and special projects. This full-time position supports key CAWP programs, including NEW Leadership® New Jersey and Teach a Girl to Lead®. For more details, visit Rutgers University’s job portal to apply.