PHOENIX (AP) – A record number of women are on track to run for the U.S. Senate, though it will be a challenge to capture those seats and help make the chamber more diverse.
Many face uphill campaigns and two Democratic incumbents in particular among the 23 women in the Senate are seen as politically vulnerable in the November election.
In Wisconsin, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican state Sen. Leah Vukmir were expected to file for the race on Wednesday. If so, 42 Republican and Democratic women – the most ever – would have qualified to 19 Senate seats. That’s according to an Associated Press analysis of data collected by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and candidate qualifying information released by states.
In 2016, 40 women ran for the Senate.
“It’s not going to be a huge gain,” said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. But, she said, the Senate “is a body more open to incremental changes.”