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Facts
and Findings
    
Election
2000:
Summary of Results for Women
The
2000 elections will result in new record numbers of women in the
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as an all-time
high number of women serving as governors of states. However, it
appears that the number of women in state legislatures will actually
decline slightly for the first time since CAWP began tracking the
number of women serving.
U.S.
Senate
| * |
A record number
of women will serve in the Senate beginning in 2001. The Senate
will have 13 women (10D, 3R).
This figure includes newly-elected Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Hillary
Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), as well as Jean
Carnahan (D-MO) who was appointed to the Senate seat won by her late
husband, effective January 3, 2001. Clinton won an open seat, while Cantwell
and Stabenow defeated incumbents.
They joined three incumbents re-elected in 2000 - Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kay
Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) - and six
incumbents who did not face elections in 2000.
Every woman who earned a major party nomination for the Senate in 2000
won in the general election.
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| * |
Three states
will have 2 women each in the U.S. Senate (CA, ME, WA).
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U.S.
House
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| * |
A record number
of women serve in the House in the 107th Congress. As a result
of the 2000 elections, the House includes 59 women (41D,
18R), as well as two women who are non-voting delegates from the
District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The newcomers to the House are: Democrats Hilda Solis (CA) and Betty
McCollum (MN) who won open seats; and Susan Davis (CA) and Jane
Harman (CA), who defeated incumbents; and Republicans Melissa Hart (PA), Shelley
Moore Capito (WV) and JoAnn Davis (VA), all of whom won open
seats.
In addition, all 52 incumbents who ran for re-election were victors.
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Three states
will send their first Republican women to Congress. The women are Melissa
Hart (R-PA), Joann Davis (R-VA) and Shelley Moore
Capito (R-WV).
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Governors
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The total number
of women governors serving in 2001 is now 4, although until
late January it was a record 5. New Hampshire's Governor Jeanne
Shaheen (D) won re-election and women won gubernatorial races
in Delaware (Ruth Ann Minner, D) and Montana (Judy Martz,
R). They joined incumbents Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ)
and Jane Dee Hull (R-AZ) to make up the largest group of
women ever serving as governors at one time. Whitman subsequently
resigned to become EPA administrator in the Bush administration.
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In addition, Sila
Calderón of the PPD (Popular Democratic Party) will
serve as the first woman governor of Puerto Rico, which is a
U.S. territory.
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Other
Statewide Elective Executive Offices
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| * |
Women will also
hold the following statewide elective executive offices in 2001: |
| |
| Lieutenant
Governor |
17
|
(7D,
9R, 1IP) |
| Attorney
General |
8
|
(5D,
3R) |
| Secretary
of State |
13
|
(6D,
7R) |
State
Treasurer
(plus one elected by the
state legislature) |
11
|
(7D,
4R) |
| State
Auditor |
6
|
(4D,
2R) |
| State
Comptroller/Controller |
4
|
(2D,
2R) |
Chief
State Education Official
(title varies from state to state) |
10
|
(4D,
4R, 2NP) |
| Commissioner
of Elections |
1
|
(1R) |
| Commissioner
of Insurance |
2
|
(1D,
1R) |
| Commissioner
of Labor |
2
|
(2R) |
| Corporation
Commissioner |
1
|
(1R) |
| Public
Service Commissioner |
3
|
(2D,
1R) |
| Public
Utilities Commissioner |
2
|
(1D,
1R) |
| Public
Regulatory Commissioner |
2
|
(2D) |
Chief
Agricultural Official
(title varies from state
to state) |
3
|
(2D,
1R) |
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State
Legislatures
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The total number
of women candidates for state legislatures in 2000 was 2,229.
Of those, preliminary counts show that 1,387 won their races.
Added to the 269 holdovers and several post-election changes
(due to resignations and deaths), they will make up a total of 1,663
women in state legislatures in 2001, or 22.4% of the total.
This
will be a drop from the 2000 figure of 1,672 (22.5%). Washington
will continue to be the state with the highest proportion of women,
and Alabama the lowest.
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| * |
The states with
the highest proportions of women state legislators in 2001
will be:
| Washington |
38.8%
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| Colorado |
35.0%
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| Nevada |
34.9%
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| Arizona |
34.4%
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| Kansas |
33.3%
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| Oregon |
33.3%
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| New
Mexico |
31.3%
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| Maine |
30.1%
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| New
Hampshire |
29.5%
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| Connecticut |
29.4%
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| * |
The states with
the lowest proportions of women state legislators in 2001
will be:
| Alabama |
7.9%
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| Oklahoma |
10.1%
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| South
Carolina |
10.6%
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| Kentucky |
10.9%
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| Mississippi |
12.6%
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| Arkansas |
13.3%
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| Pennsylvania |
13.4%
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| South
Dakota |
15.2%
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| Wyoming |
15.6%
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| New
Jersey |
15.8%
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