Female American Presidential Candidates

AMERICAN WOMEN FOR PRESIDENT

Women have unsuccessfully sought the US Presidency since 1872

Women who have sought the American Presidency (from left to right): Victoria Woodull in 1872 on behalf of the Equal rights Party; Jill Stein in 2016 on behalf of the Green Party; Kamala Harris in 2024* on behalf of the Democratic Party

October / November 2024: Astonishingly, women have sought the US Presidency long before they received the vote. Victoria Woodhall is generally considered the first woman to run for President. Her opponents in 1872 were Ulysses S Grant (Republican) and Horace Greeley (Democrat). But it was not until 2008 that a woman was considered to have a realistic chance to be elected American President. Alas, it was not to be. In 2008, Hillary Clinton lost to Barack Obama, who won the Democratic Party nomination, while eight years later, she was defeated by Donald Trump in the general election. In the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris lost Donald Trump

List of women who sought the US Presidency*

1872

• Ulysses S Grant, Republican, elected President

Victoria Woodhull (Equal Rights Party) was nominated for president of the United States by the newly formed Equal Rights Party in May 1872 at Apollo Hall, New York City. A year earlier, she had announced her intention to run. Victoria Woodhull's running mate was Frederick Douglass, a white woman and a black man, a combination that legally couldn't marry in 1872 but could run for president.

1884 & 1888

• Grover Cleveland, Democrat, elected President in 1884, and in 1888, Benjamin Harrison, Republican, elected President

Belva Lockwood (National Equal Rights Party) was the second woman to run for President of the United States. Lockwood ran as the candidate of the National Equal Rights Party. She ran in the presidential elections of 1884 and 1888. (Grover Cleveland, Democrat, elected President in 1884, and in 1888, Benjamin Harrison, Republican, elected President)

1920

• Warren G Harding, Republican, elected President

Laura Clay (Democratic Party) made American history as one of the first women (alongside fellow Kentucky delegate Cora Wilson Stewart) to be put forward as a candidate for the presidential nomination of a major political party. Thanks to the Kentucky delegates' chairman, Augustus Owsley Stanley, Clay and Stewart were the first two women to receive a vote each for a candidate for president.

1964

• Lyndon B Johnson, Democrat, elected President

In January 1964, Margaret Chase Smith announced her candidacy for President of the United States.[22] She declared, "I have few illusions and no money, but I'm staying for the finish. When people keep telling you you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try.

1968

• Richard Nixon, Republican, elected President

As a third-party candidate in the election of 1968, Charlene Mitchell was the first Black woman to run for President of the United States. She represented the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and her running mate was Michael Zagarell, the National Youth Director of the party. They were entered on the ballots in only four states and received about 1,000 votes.

1972

• Richard Nixon, Republican, elected President

Shirley Chisholm (Democratic Party) began exploring her candidacy in July 1971 and formally announced her presidential bid in January 1972 in a Baptist church in her district in Brooklyn. There, she called for a "bloodless revolution" at the forthcoming Democratic nominating convention for the 1972 US presidential election. Chisholm became the first African American to run for a major party's nomination for President of the United States.

Patsy Mink (Democratic Party), frustrated by the roll-backs by the Nixon administration of civil liberties and the continuance of the Vietnam War, entered the presidential race in 1971 hoping to become the Democratic Party's nominee. She was the first Asian-American woman to run for president. As Hawaii had no primary, her name appeared on the Oregon ballot for 1972 as an anti-war candidate. In May, she lost the presidential primary, failing to secure enough delegates to support her candidacy, earning only two per cent of the 50 potential delegates.

1976 & 1980

• Jimmy Carter, Democrat, elected President in 1976; Ronald Reagan, Republican, elected President in 1980

In July 1975, Ellen McCormack (Democrat) filed with the Federal Election Commission to run in the 1976 presidential primary and formally announced her candidacy at a news conference in Boston, Massachusetts, in November. She was the first woman to receive federal matching funds (she received $244,125) and appeared on the ballot in twenty states. She ran on an exclusively anti-abortion platform and won no primaries but had her name placed into nomination and seconded by Erma Clardy Craven, received 22 votes from delegates at the 1976 Democratic National Convention and engaged in a debate that also included future President Jimmy Carter.

During the 1980 presidential election, she ran as the presidential nominee of the New York State Right to Life Party, with Carroll Driscoll as her running mate. They received 32,327 votes.

1984

• Ronald Reagan, Republican, elected President

Sonia Johnson ran in the 1984 presidential election as the candidate of the Citizens Party, Pennsylvania's Consumer Party, and California's Peace and Freedom Party. Johnson received 72,161 votes (0.08%), finishing fifth. Her running mate for the Citizens Party was Richard Walton, and for the Peace and Freedom Party, Emma Wong Mar. Mark Dunlea, assistant campaign manager for her campaign, later wrote a book about a fictional female American president, Madame President: The Unauthorized Biography of the First Green Party President.

1988 & 1992

• George H W Bush, Republican, elected President in 1988; Bill Clinton, Democrat, elected President in 1992

Lenora Fulani (New Alliance Party) ran for president in 1988 as the candidate of the New Alliance Party. She received more than two million million votes or 0.2% of the national vote. She was, at the same, the first African-American, independent, and female presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states. Fulani again ran as the New Alliance candidate in the 1992 presidential election, this time receiving 0.07% of the vote. She chose former Peace and Freedom Party activist Maria Elizabeth Muñoz as her vice-presidential running mate. Lenora Fulani received 217,219 popular votes.

2000

• George W Bush, Republican, elected President

Elizabeth Dole (Republican Party) ran for the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election. She withdrew from the race in October 1999 before any of the primaries, largely due to inadequate fundraising, even though a Gallup poll had her in second place in the presidential race at 11% behind George W. Bush at 60%

2004

• George W Bush, Republican, elected President

In February 2003, Carol Moseley Braun announced her intention to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, doing so in a speech delivered at the University of Chicago Law School. She thereafter launched an exploratory committee for a presidential campaign. She had, in the days leading up to this announcement, made her first campaign-season visits to the early primary and caucus states of New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina. In her announcement speech, she declared, "It's time to take the 'men only' sign off the White House door." She joined an already sizable field of candidates for the Democratic nomination. In January 2004, two days after a disappointing third-place showing in the Washington DC primary and four days before the Iowa caucuses, Moseley Braun dropped out of the race.

2008

• Barack Obama, Democrat, elected President

In January 2007, Hillary Clinton (Democratic Party) announced via her website the formation of a presidential exploratory committee for the United States presidential election of 2008, stating: "I'm in, and I'm in to win." No woman had ever been nominated by a major party for the presidency, and no first lady had ever run for president. Clinton and Obama each received over 17 million votes during the nomination process, with both breaking the previous record. Clinton was the first woman to run in the primary or caucus of every state, and she eclipsed it by a very wide margin.

2012

• Barack Obama, Democrat, elected President

• Jill Stein received 468,907 popular votes

Jill Stein proposed the Green New Deal, a government spending plan intended to put 25 million people to work. Stein became the presumptive Green Party nominee after winning two-thirds of California's delegates in June 2012. In July, the Stein campaign reported it had received enough contributions to qualify for primary season federal matching funds. This made Stein the first Green Party presidential candidate ever to have qualified for federal matching funds. Stein selected Cheri Honkala, an anti-poverty activist, as her vice-presidential running mate.

Michele Bachman (Republican Party) In early 2011, amid substantial speculation, Bachmann announced her candidacy for president. She participated in the second Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire in June 2011 and, during the debate, announced that she had filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) earlier that day to become a candidate for the nomination. Bachmann formally announced her candidacy for the nomination in June 2011 during an appearance in Waterloo, Iowa, her birth city. Bachmann won the Ames Straw Poll hosted by the Iowa GOP in August 2011, becoming the first woman ever to win the poll, but finished sixth in the January 2012 caucuses, with just five per cent of the vote. She then cancelled her scheduled campaign trips to South Carolina and suspended her campaign.

Roseanne Barr (Green Tea Party) In August 2011, she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and announced her candidacy for president in the 2012 presidential election, running on the self-created "Green Tea Party" ticket. Her candidacy called attention to economics, personal health, and meditation. Barr appeared on the ballot in California, Colorado, and Florida. She did not appear on the ballot in her home state of Hawaii (which did not allow write-in votes). She ended up voting for President Obama. She received 67,326 votes nationwide, placing sixth overall with 0.05% of the popular vote;

Carly Fiorina (Republican Party) was a candidate in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries but suspended her campaign to be vice presidential running mate with Senator Ted Cruz if he won the Republican nomination.

2016

• Donald Trump, Republican, elected President

• Hillary Clinton received 65,853,514 popular votes

• Jill Stein received 1,457,218 popular votes

In April 2015, Hillary Clinton formally announced her candidacy for the presidency in the 2016 election. She had a campaign-in-waiting already in place, including a large donor network, experienced operatives and the Ready for Hillary and Priorities USA Action political action committees and other infrastructure. Before her campaign,

On 1 March, Super Tuesday, Clinton won 7 of 11 contests, including a string of dominating victories across the South buoyed, as in South Carolina, by African-American voters. She opened up a significant lead in pledged delegates over Bernie Sanders. She maintained this delegate lead across subsequent contests during the primary season, with a consistent pattern throughout. Sanders did better among younger, whiter, more rural and more liberal voters and states that held caucuses or where eligibility was open to independents. Clinton did better among older, black and Hispanic voter populations and in states that held primaries or where eligibility was restricted to registered Democrats.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton was formally nominated by the Democrats, becoming the first woman to participate in a presidential debate. Clinton was the first woman to win the national popular vote. However, she lost the presidency by losing the electoral college vote.

Hillary Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump in the 8 November 2016 presidential election By the early morning hours of 9 November, Trump had received 279 projected electoral college votes, with 270 needed to win. Clinton then phoned Trump to concede and to congratulate him on his victory, whereupon Trump gave his victory speech. Though Hillary Clinton lost the election by capturing only 232 electoral votes to Trump's 306, she won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million votes or 2.1% of the voter base. She was the fifth presidential candidate in US history to win the popular vote but lose the election.

Jill Stein stated during the 2016 campaign that the Democratic and Republican parties are "two corporate parties" that have converged into one. Concerned by the rise of neofascism internationally and the rise of neoliberalism within the Democratic Party, she has said, "The answer to neofascism is stopping neoliberalism. Putting another Clinton in the White House will fan the flames of this right-wing extremism. We have known that for a long time, ever since Nazi Germany.

Indigenous American Faith Spotted Eagle received one electoral vote for president. Spotted Eagle is the first Native American to receive an Electoral College vote for President (though not the first to receive an electoral vote overall, as Charles Curtis received a majority of electoral votes to become Vice President in 1928) and she and Hillary Clinton are the first two women to receive an electoral vote for president.

2020

• Joe Biden, Democrat, elected)

• Jo Jorgenson received 1,865,724 popular votes

Six women ran for the Democratic Party president nomination in the 2020 primaries, and each participated in a primary debate: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand; Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Marianne Williamson.

In May 2020, Jo Jorgensen became the Libertarian presidential nominee, making her the first woman to be the Libertarian nominee and the only female 2020 presidential candidate with ballot access to over 270 electoral votes. Spike Cohen, a mostly unknown figure in mainstream politics, was nominated for vice president.

2024

• Donald Trump (Repiublican) elected President with 76, 900,000 votes (49.9%)

• Kamala Harris (Democrat) received 74, 400,000 votes (48.4%)

• Jill Stein (Green Party) received 777,000 votes (0.5%)

• Robert Kennedy (Independent) received 754,000 votes (0.5%)

On 21 July 2024, incumbent president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden suspended his campaign for re-election in 2024 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Harris was also endorsed by Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus, and many others.[ In the first 24 hours of her candidacy, her campaign raised $81 million in small-dollar donations, the highest single-day total of any presidential candidate in history. If elected, Harris would be the first female and first Asian-American president of the United States and the second African-American president after Obama. By 5 August, Harris had officially secured the nomination via a virtual roll call of delegates. The next day, she announced Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate.[ On 22 August, the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president. Harris participated in a debate with Trump on 10 September. Most independent commentators reported that Harris had won the debate.

Unlike in 2016, when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but was defeated in the US electoral college, in 2024, Donald Trump won both the popular and the electoral college votes. Kamala Harris was unsuccessful in all the so-called ‘swing states’, including Pennsylvania, considered a must-win state for her.

The US Green Party has run a woman for president four times, including Jill Stein for the third time in this presidential election year (2024).

The Party of Socialism and Liberation has nominated a woman for president in the last five elections, including Claudia De la Cruz, in this year’s (2024) presidential election.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley ran in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries and became the first woman to win a Republican primary. During her campaign, she was highly critical of Donald Trump. Nevertheless, she endorsed him after suspending her campaign.

*Methodology: The list was compiled before the 5 November 2024 US presidential election and updated after the electen. Sources used include: Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, 1st Amendment-1st Vote, Wikipedia, Miscellaneous publications

IN YOUR OPINION: Praise us. Criticise us. Write for us |