These are the nine to watch. Iowa State Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican running in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District.
The 2018 pink wave that saw a record number of women running for Congress and winning was no fluke. A record 490 women have filed as candidates for House seats in the 2020 election, according to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) — a figure that tops the then-high of 476 that ran in 2018. And with candidate filing deadlines still weeks away in 14 states, we can expect even more women to step forward.
Of those female candidates, 195 are running on the Republican ticket, a notable figure given the dearth of female GOPers in the House, and far more than the previous high of 133 in the 2010 midterms. “We’re seeing the closing of the partisan gap among women,” said Kelly Dittmar, an assistant research professor at CAWP. In an effort to retake the House, Republicans are using the Democrats’ 2018 playbook and recruiting diverse candidates to challenge incumbents.
On the Senate side, the 48 women running represents the second-most ever in a cycle — just behind the 53 who ran in 2018.
Control over the House and Senate hangs in the balance this year, and women candidates are at the center of some of the closest races. Using the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan online newsletter that analyzes congressional elections, we determined the nine candidates whose races you’ll want to keep an eye on.
After coming close to unseating Rep. Andy Barr in the 2018 midterm election, Amy McGrath set her sights on an even higher-profile target: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky senator is one of the most loathed politicians in America, even in his own state, and the campaign to unseat him is shaping up to be one of the most expensive in recent years.
McGrath, who is the favorite to win the Democratic primary, is a former Marine pilot. She’s a supporter of access to affordable health care, getting big money out of politics, and gun safety legislation. So far, she has raised an impressive $29 million war chest to McConnell’s $24 million. Polls have them in a tight race, though the Cook Political Report still predicts McConnell will prevail.
Ashley Hinson, a former TV news anchor who’s served in the State House since 2016, is expected to win the Republican nomination in the state’s June primary. Should that happen, Hinson, who’s running on a platform that includes middle-class tax cuts and helping farmers by making them more central to international trade agreements, will square off against Rep. Abby Finkenauer, the 31-year-old Democrat who made history in 2018 as one of the youngest women ever elected to Congress. (Finkenauer was one of the many moderate Democrats who flipped Republican-held districts and helped the party regain control of the House.)
The race is currently a toss-up. Hinson has raised about $1.7 million so far, while Finkenauer has about $2.7 million.
Yvette Herrell is seeking a rematch against incumbent Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, who narrowly defeated her and turned New Mexico’s 2nd District blue in the 2018 midterms. Herrell, who served as a state lawmaker for four terms and currently owns a real estate business, describes herself on her website as “Pro-God. Pro-Life. Pro-Gun. Pro-Business. Pro-Energy.”
But to face off against Torres Small, Herrell must first defeat two other Republicans in the state’s primary on June 2. One of them is first-time candidate Claire Chase, an oil and gas executive who previously served as a senior legislative assistant to former GOP Rep. Steve Pearce.
Both Herrell and Chase are running viable campaigns — Chase has raised about $1 million, while Herrell has about $752,000 — but the race has become increasingly bitter. Whoever becomes the Republican nominee will probably give Torres Small a run for her money: The race has been labeled a toss-up.
Gina Ortiz Jones lost a tight contest in 2018 to Rep. Will Hurd. But Hurd has decided to retire, opening the door for her to potentially take the seat come November. Jones, a former Air Force intelligence officer, won the Democratic primary in early March by a landslide. Top issues in her platform include investing in small businesses, responsible immigration reform, and access to affordable health care.
Jones leads the race in fundraising with about $3.2 million. The Cook Political Report says the district currently leans Democratic.
Even though Democrats are in control of the House, there are numerous candidates across the country who are trying to challenge incumbents from the left. One of them is McKayla Wilkes, who is giving House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer his first well-funded primary challenge since he was elected in 1980 — a full decade before Wilkes was even born. Wilkes, an administrative assistant and part-time student, is running on a progressive platform, supporting Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and criminal justice reform.
Though the district has been rated as solidly Democratic, Wilkes has an uphill battle if she wants to defeat Hoyer in the primary: She’s raised just $200,000 to his $3.2 million.
Republicans lost a large number of longtime GOP strongholds in California in the 2018 midterm election, and the 48th congressional district was no exception. Michelle Steel is challenging the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Harley Rouda. Steel is a first-generation Korean-American and member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. She supports ending the policy of sanctuary states and cities, lowering taxes, and building Trump’s Southern border wall.
The Cook Political Report has rated the district as leaning Democratic. Still, Steel has raised about $2.1 million — less than Rouda’s $3 million, but not by much.
The 1st congressional district in the Palmetto State went from red to blue in the 2018 midterm election, thanks to Rep. Joe Cunningham. Now, state Rep. Nancy Mace wants to flip it back. The district is one of the 55 districts the National Republican Congressional Committee has targeted in an effort to regain the House.
Mace is a second-term lawmaker who made history as the first woman to graduate from the state’s military college, The Citadel. She’s pro-life, supports the border wall plan, and opposes offshore drilling. A previous bid to unseat Sen. Lindsay Graham in the 2014 midterm primary came up well short.
Mace is currently the primary front-runner, and has raised nearly $1.2 million to Cunningham’s $3.4 million. The race has been labeled a toss-up.
Grassroots organizers in the Pine Tree State are dead set on defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins, and it looks like Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon might be the right woman for the job. Gideon was elected to the state House in 2012, and became speaker just two terms later. Some of her legislative priorities include access to affordable health care, ending the opioid epidemic, and raising the federal minimum wage.
Collins’ decision to side with the Trump administration during the Kavanaugh confirmation process has caused her popularity to take a huge tumble: According to Morning Consult, she’s now the least popular senator in the U.S.
The race has been ranked as a toss-up and would be key in helping Democrats regain control of the Senate. The Democratic primary is taking place in July, and Gideon has emerged as the clear front-runner. She raised more than $1 million in the week after announcing she was running, and has even out-raised Collins since, with a war chest of nearly $15 million.