May 28, 2024

Earlier today, CAWP released our annual New Jersey County Report Card, tracking women’s representation as mayors, municipal council members, and county commissioners. Since CAWP’s 2023 report card, women gained 17 mayoralties; this is the largest gain in the number of mayors’ offices held by women since CAWP began tracking this data and follows two years of declines in the number of women mayors in New Jersey. Women also gained 26 seats on town and city councils, although the overall proportion of council seats held by women remained the same at 31%. The number of women holding county commission seats declined by two since 2023.

In our overall rankings of counties for women’s representation – determined by a combined average of the share of mayoralties, town council seats, and county commissionerships held by women – the top three counties for women’s representation in New Jersey are Mercer, Union, and Somerset. The bottom three are Cumberland, Passaic, and Cape May.

“We’ve seen some important gains for women in local office this year, and this comes at a unique time for New Jersey to keep this momentum going,” said CAWP Associate Director Jean Sinzdak. “Changes to the ‘ballot party line’ system – which has long stymied political newcomers, outsiders, and underrepresented groups – have the potential to upend the politics of New Jersey and help democratize political power in the state. This is a generational opportunity for change, and we’ll be watching to see what impact this has on women’s representation moving forward."

Read the full 2024 county report card here.

Following previous analyses of women candidates in congressional elections, CAWP Director of Research Kelly Dittmar has provided an early look at the status of women’s candidacies in state elections in 2024. Some key findings from her analysis:

• The number of major-party state House candidates is down from 2022 to 2024, with drops greatest among men (v. women) and almost entirely concentrated among Republicans (v. Democrats).
• At the intersection of gender and party, the only group seeing a rise in state House candidacies is Democratic women. State House candidacies are down from 2022 to 2024 among Democratic men, Republican women, and Republican men.
• Women are a larger proportion of all major-party state House candidates in 2024 than 2022, with Democratic women much better represented among their party’s candidates than Republican women. In fact, women are nearly 50% of Democratic state House candidates in 2024.
• Both the raw number and proportion of women who have filed as major-party candidates for governor are up from 2020 to 2024, and women are likely to increase their gubernatorial representation – at least by one – as a result of the 2024 election, which would yield a new record high.



Read the full analysis on the CAWP blog.

CAWP Senior Scholar Kira Sanbonmatsu joined The 19th* news for their event, “Equal Participants in Our Democracy.” Anchored by a conversation between Representative Nancy Pelosi, speaker emerita of the U.S. House, and Errin Haines, editor at large at The 19th*, the event featured panel appearances by experts, advocates, and journalists. Sanbonmatsu, pictured on the far right, spoke about her recent research regarding gender gaps in political donations. “That means women aren’t necessarily getting the candidates that they prefer,” she said. “And those candidates might not make it to the ballot, and that means they might have less voice. And I think what we know, looking around at what’s happened over the last few years, states matter a lot, and women’s voices are not heard to the same extent as men’s in these state offices.”

Read more about the event at The 19th*.

Updates from Election Watch 2024 

In recent weeks, primaries were held in Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia (May 14) and Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, and Oregon (May 22). Here are key results for women candidates from CAWP:

• Angela Alsobrooks secured the Democratic nomination for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat, which is currently rated as “Likely Democrat” by Cook Political Report. If successful, Alsobrooks will be just the fourth Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate and the first Black woman to be elected statewide in Maryland.
• State Senator Sarah Elfreth (D) is strongly favored to win the open seat in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, and April McClain-Delaney, deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Commerce and spouse to former U.S. Representative John Delaney (D), is favored to win the open seat in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District.
• Women’s congressional representation is unlikely to change in Georgia, Nebraska, West Virginia.
• Idaho and Kentucky are likely to remain states that have no women representing them in the U.S. Congress.
• Oregon will elect a new woman to the U.S. House in Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, where state Representative Maxine Dexter (D) is favored in an all-woman, open-seat contest against Joanna Harbour (R).
• State Senator Elizabeth Steiner (D) won the Democratic nomination in the open-seat contest for Oregon treasurer. If successful in November, she would be the first woman to serve in that office.

Find full results for women in these states and all states where primaries have thus far been held on the Election Results and Analysis page of CAWP’s Election Watch.