What Went Down During Ohio’s And Indiana’s Primary Elections

The 2018 midterms were declared the “Year of the Woman” because of the surge of women that ran for and won political office. But as we reported at the time, those gains were really lopsided (Democratic women fueled the wave) and the overall share of women in Congress ticked up just 3 percentage points to 24 percent. Republican women made up some ground in 2020, breaking their own records, but, even with that strong GOP performance, Democratic women still outnumbered them nearly three to one in Congress, and Congress overall is just 27 percent female.

But in Indiana’s primary today, Republican women could stand to make some gains as they make up a much bigger share of the candidates than Democratic women — 24 percent of the GOP candidates are women compared to just 9 percent of Democratic candidates. Two of the Republican women running are incumbents — Reps. Victoria Spartz (Indiana’s 5th) and Jackie Walorski (Indiana’s 2nd), but former mayor of La Porte and U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Blair Milo (Indiana’s 1st) and former Indiana state Sen. Erin Houchin (Indiana’s 9th) could add to Republican women’s representation in Congress by becoming their party’s nominees.

I’ll be keeping an especially close eye on these races as both Milo and Houchin are strong candidates. They have some early backing from GOP women’s groups, which, as we’ve written before, is key to women gaining ground in Congress; Milo was endorsed by VIEW PAC, and Houchin has the endorsement of VIEW PAC, E-PAC, Winning for Women and Maggie’s List.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, there’s less opportunity for Republican women to make gains. Just 12 percent of the GOP’s candidates are women compared to Democratic women, who make up 38 percent of the candidates. One race where Democrats are almost guaranteed to elect a woman, though, is Ohio’s 11th, where Rep. Shontel Brown is facing former state Sen. Nina Turner in an establishment vs. progressive rematch, as Jacob wrote earlier. Another Ohio race with a progressive female candidate in the mix is the Democratic Senate race, where community organizer and consumer protection attorney Morgan Harper is competing against Rep. Tim Ryan in an open primary. Harper has been endorsed by PCCC, but is a long shot, according to polls. (Really whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being is a long shot, though, as the seat Democrats are trying to fill is Republican Sen. Rob Portman’s.) But Democrats could add another woman to their ranks in the race to replace Tim Ryan in Ohio’s 13th district. Ohio state Rep. Emilia Sykes is running unopposed and has early support from Emily’s List.

I will be watching these races and more, though, to see how women fare tonight.