The year 2018 saw a record number of women candidates competing in major party primary elections*, with another record number making it through to next week’s general election. An analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute of pre-general election reports from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) shows that these candidates have been very successful in raising funds for the general election, especially in competitive races.
As a result, it is likely that the next Congress will set yet another record, for the number of women members. Currently there are eighty-four female members of the House. In next week’s election, eighty-two races have female candidates whose elections are considered to be safe or likely. This includes sixty-nine incumbents and thirteen open seat candidates. Thirty-four competitive races feature a female running against a male. In these competitive incumbent/challenger or open seat races, women are outraising their male opponents, on average, by more than $500,000 each ($3.67 to $3.13 million).