• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. women>

Is this the year for two-woman tickets?

Barbara Rodriguez, The 19th
May 06, 2022
Nan Whaley and Cheryl Stephens

Nan Whaley (left) and Cheryl Stephens are running together for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, in Ohio.

Originally published by The 19th.

A record number of women could end up running together as nominees for governor and lieutenant this November, signaling shifting perceptions about women’s electability.

Nan Whaley won the Democratic nomination for Ohio governor Tuesday night alongside Cheryl Stephens, her running mate for lieutenant governor. In at least 13 states, women are running for both governor and lieutenant governor this year, according to a preliminary tally by the Center for American Women and Politics. Additional primary races this month could set up more two-woman tickets for the general election — and if one is successful, it will be the first time in U.S. history that voters have elected two women to a state’s top two executive spots,

“I think the fact that we’re looking at multiple all-female tickets for governor and lieutenant governor is extraordinary,” said Erin Loos Cutraro, the founder and CEO of She Should Run, a nonpartisan nonprofit that encourages women to run for office. “It tells us how far we’ve come. It tells us to be hopeful for the future.”


Limited information is available on the number of women who have run concurrently for governor and lieutenant governor during a primary, and the data carries a caveat: Two-woman tickets are not always intentional. In some states, candidates for the top two posts run together on a ticket in both the primary and general, in some they’re separate, and in some candidates run separately during the primary and together on a ticket for the general election. In six elections since 2000, two women have run from the same major party for lieutenant governor and governor, but not as a ticket; none were successful.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

More from The 19th

  • The 19th Explains: The governor’s races we’re watching in 2022
  • She’s a White suburban mom. Can this lawmaker — and her viral speech — rally people like her for Democrats?
  • Older women voters may play a big role in the 2022 midterms, and they are not happy

In Ohio, Whaley and Stephens appeared on the primary ballot together. Whaley, a former mayor of Dayton, and Stephens, who is an organizer and former mayor, will go up in November against Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who won a crowded primary Tuesday, and his running mate, current Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

Whaley and Stephens’ primary win means 2022 already matches the record for the number of gubernatorial tickets with women running on a ticket together. In the past 30 years, there has never been more than one in a general election:

  • Democrats Dawn Clark Netsch and Penny Severns in Illinois in 1994
  • Republicans Peppy Martin and Wanda Cornelius in Kentucky in 1999
  • Democrats Barbara Buono and Milly Silva in New Jersey in 2013
  • Democrats Susan Wismer and Susan Blake in South Dakota in 2014
  • Republicans Andria Tupola and Marissa Kerns in Hawaii in 2018

All lost. In at least one instance, the candidates did not intend to run together. Tupola and Kerns ran separately in their primary but then together on a ticket in the general election. (That dynamic sometimes caused friction between the two.)

At least one all-woman ticket could happen unintentionally this year. In Arkansas, which holds its primary May 24, Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the party’s presumptive nominee for governor. Republican Leslie Rutledge, the state’s current attorney general, is in a crowded race for lieutenant governor that could go into a runoff. The winners of the GOP primary in the conservative-leaning state are likely to be elected in November.

In Georgia, also holding primaries May 24 — and which, like Arkansas, has never elected a woman governor — Democrat Stacey Abrams faces no challengers within her party as she makes another bid for governor. The race for the number two spot is crowded, but among the candidates is state Rep. Renitta Shannon, a Black woman and the only Democratic woman. Abrams has not weighed in on the lieutenant governor’s race, which could go into a runoff if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote. Shannon is seeking to run alongside Abrams, who could become the first Black woman ever elected governor in any U.S. state.

Christine Matthews is a pollster who has studied women’s candidacies and worked in gubernatorial races in the past, including that of Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. She noted that since at least the 1980s, there has been a model for the two-person ticket for governor and lieutenant governor: A man runs for governor and, increasingly, chooses a woman as his running mate.

This is reflected in the data. While just nine women currently serve as governors, 19 serve as lieutenant governors, a position that can vary widely in responsibilities and is sometimes largely a ceremonial role. More women of color are serving as lieutenant governors now than have ever served as governor.

The model for the top statewide office has changed as more women have been elected to all levels of government, Matthews said.

“I do think this cycle, voters are in the mindset where they’re ready to elect a woman governor and lieutenant governor because of the normalization of female candidates,” she said.

The conditions have been limited for two-woman tickets. Just 45 women have ever served as governors, compared with at least 1,000 men, according to a general estimate from the Eagleton Center on the American Governor.

No woman governor has ever served with a woman lieutenant governor on a permanent basis — though there have been multiple occasions where there was a woman governor and a woman next in the line of succession, according to CAWP. In 2021, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul briefly served with Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Senate majority leader in the statehouse, but she later appointed Brian Benjamin as her number two. Benjamin resigned last month amid a campaign bribery investigation. Hochul has replaced Benjamin with U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, who is expected to campaign with her but will be separate from her on the primary ballot. Other women candidates could end up on the general ballot with Hochul because of the last minute shake-up.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has worked for women candidates, noted that her research shows two-thirds of swing voters at the end of any given election cycle are usually women. She said it makes sense that nominating women candidates is a good way to gain independent swing women voters. She also noted more Republican women are finally getting early primary support and winning primaries.

“Both parties have realized that when they run women, they win,” she said.

Still, there are potential barriers for the women candidates, particularly those who run for governor. Research shows gender inequalities in the fundraising process, including the fact that men outnumber women as donors in gubernatorial races.

Lake added that her research has shown women candidates for governor have had to prove that they are qualified while men are assumed to be qualified. She said in a general election with two-woman tickets, women candidates may have to work twice as hard to prove themselves.

This could play out in gubernatorial races where two women are running against each other as well. New research by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which advocates for women’s political representation, shows that in woman vs. woman matchups, gender bias is amplified. Women candidates at the top of the ticket have to do more to prove they are qualified. Voters also disproportionately scrutinize women candidates’ appearance, including clothing and posture.

While gender can play a role in voters’ decision-making, it’s usually not as large as that of party affiliation and partisanship. In Ohio, Whaley and Stephens face an uphill battle in a state where more than twice as many people voted this week in the Republican gubernatorial primary as the Democratic one, and where in 2016 and 2020, former President Donald Trump won by about eight points.

“The fact that you’ve got two women running in Ohio as Democrats. If they lose, the politics of being a Democrat in Ohio is going to have almost everything to do with it and much less the fact that it’s two women,” Matthews said.

Cutraro said while she’s happy to see a jump in women’s representation for the top statewide offices, she noted the importance of investing in encouraging more women to run. She pointed to research that shows how women are taught to lose political ambition at an early age. And for now, 19 states still have never had a woman governor. At least six states with the potential for two-woman tickets have never had a woman elected governor.

“It reminds us that as we look at cities and statehouses across the country, how much more work we have to do to make a moment like this not seem so extraordinary,” she said.

Ohio has had a woman governor before — for 11 days in 1998, when then-Lt. Gov. Nancy P. Hollister ascended to the top spot when the Republican’s predecessor had resigned to join the U.S. Senate. But the state’s voters have never elected a woman governor. Whaley is now the first woman to be nominated by a major party in Ohio for the office.

Whaley celebrated the achievement in part by highlighting her campaign with Stephens.

“What could be more different than two women from the working class who will fight for the working class?” Whaley tweeted with a photo of the pair.

From Your Site Articles
  • Our democracy has problems. Women have solutions. - The Fulcrum ›
  • Systemic reforms power the path to women's equality - The Fulcrum ›
  • Pennsylvania didn't have a pipeline for candidates like Summer Lee ... ›
  • More women should be preparing to run for election right now - The ... ›
  • Older women voters may play a big role in the 2022 midterms - The Fulcrum ›
  • Trump and Hogan proxies headline Maryland primary eleciton - The Fulcrum ›
  • Hawaii’s vote-by-mail primary wraps up Saturday - The Fulcrum ›
  • Black women, Latinas trail other candidates in campaign cash - The Fulcrum ›
  • Looking for Black women candidates? Here’s how to find them. - The Fulcrum ›
  • 2022 may be the year for a record number of women governors - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Record-breaking number of women run for office - POLITICO ›
  • Women are running for office, but not nearly as much as men. ›
  • Women Are Running For Office In Record Numbers Because Of ... ›
  • Running for office is still for men—some data on the “Ambition Gap” ›
women

Join an Upcoming Event

Oregon STAR Voting Monthly Meeting

Equal Vote
Feb 07, 2023 at 6:00 pm PDT
Read More

STAR Voting Oregon Chapter Meeting

Equal Vote
Feb 08, 2023 at 6:00 pm CDT
Read More

Democracy Happy Hour

Fix Democracy First
Feb 15, 2023 at 5:00 pm PDT
Read More

Georgia STAR Voting Monthly Meeting

Equal Vote
Feb 17, 2023 at 7:00 pm EST
Read More

STAR Voting Software Development Meeting

Equal Vote
Feb 20, 2023 at 6:00 pm PST
Read More

STAR Voting Massachusetts Monthly Meeting

Equal Vote
Feb 21, 2023 at 7:00 pm EST
Read More
View All Events

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Our Staff
58m

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Rabbi Charles Savenor
1h

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
1h

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Lawrence Goldstone
02 February

Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Katherine Kapustka
02 February

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February
Videos

Video: The dignity index

Our Staff

Video: The Supreme Court and originalism

Our Staff

Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Our Staff

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Our Staff

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Our Staff

Video: Meet the citizen activists championing primary reform

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
1h

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Our Staff
01 February

Podcast: Separating news from noise

Our Staff
30 January
Recommended
Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take
Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Civic Ed
Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Podcasts
Video: The dignity index

Video: The dignity index

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Big Picture
Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Big Picture