THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The 2018 mid term elections saw a record number of women serving in the House of Representatives. As we approach the 2020 election, Samantha Pettey, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, reports that "Women should break records again in the 2020 election - potentially increasing the percent of women in the House from 23 percent to nearly 29 percent".
Writing an article in the LSE US Centre Blog, Pettey explains that "Women currently hold a historic high of 23.7 percent of the seats in Congress and 29.3 percent of seats across state legislatures". Pettey then provides an overview of recent developments in politics, including a growth in the number of women candidates running for both the Republican and Democratic parties. She notes that "There are 300 women running for the House in the 2020 general election; 206 Democrats and 94 Republicans. The majority of these women are running as challengers rather than incumbents."
Using models and data from sources including FiveThirtyEight and the Center for American Women, Pettey looks in detail at how the record number could be reached, and the chances of success for candidates from both parties.
To read the full article at the LSE US Centre website, go to blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/10/13/primary-primers-why-2020-is-likely-to-see-a-record-number-of-women-elected-to-the-us-house.
