Press Advisory	Revised December 21, 2006

Election 2006: Record Number of Women Run for State Legislatures

A record 2,429 women are general election candidates for state legislative seats in 2006, according to information compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The previous peak was in 1992, when 2,375 women ran.(1)

CAWP reports that the candidates include 1,559 Democrats, 861 Republicans, 7 women running in non-partisan races and 2 Progressive Party members.(2) The winners will join 239 holdovers who are not up for election this year. More details and historical information on women state legislative candidates are available here.

For state-by-state information about women candidates for federal, statewide and state legislative offices, visit CAWP’s Election Watch page.
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1. Because some states hold state senate and/or state house elections every four years, comparisons between four year periods will generally reflect the same overall number of races (except in years with redistricting); comparisons between two year periods may not.

2. Third party candidates are not included unless they are incumbents or until they have won their races.