ABC: “Democratic women could make history in midterm governor and House races”

ABC: “Democratic women could make history in midterm governor and House races”

New reporting from ABC News shines a spotlight on the number of Democratic women running for governor across the country this year, noting that “there are 19 Democratic women gubernatorial nominees, a record that’s up from 16 in 2022.”

On the campaign trail, these candidates are talking about the issues that matter most to the people of their state and showing through their own personal stories exactly why they are fit to lead. As Dr. Amy Acton told ABC: “I’m a scrappy kid from Youngstown. I’ve seen a thing or two, and I’m up for this fight. But kindness shouldn’t be seen as weakness.”

ABC also highlighted that “Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey chairs the Democratic Governors Association’s Women Governors Fund. Since 2018, the DGA has invested over $120 million to elect and re-elect the current class of Democratic women governors.”

ABC: Democratic women could make history in midterm governor and House races

• Four years ago, eight Democratic women won governorships in a single election, a milestone that reshaped the map.

• This November, Democrats aim to elect even more — including in red states — and to push the number of Democratic women in the U.S. House past 100.

• Twenty-six women are major-party nominees overall, one more than the 2022 record of 25. There are 19 Democratic women gubernatorial nominees, a record that’s up from 16 in 2022. Republicans have seven women nominees in governor’s races, down from nine in 2022.

• In Ohio, Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy has faced bipartisan backlash for his attack ad against Democratic nominee Amy Acton. The ad features Acton’s estranged mother, whom Acton says stood by the man criminally charged with sexually abusing her as a child before his death in 2004.

• Acton would be Ohio’s first woman governor and has railed against Ramaswamy for doubling down on the ad in recent speeches, including at her rally alongside former President Barack Obama.

• She told ABC News: “I’m a scrappy kid from Youngstown. I’ve seen a thing or two, and I’m up for this fight. But kindness shouldn’t be seen as weakness.”

• Michigan Democrat Jocelyn Benson said in an interview that her miscarriage has shaped her healthcare message when speaking to voters. She noted that federal funding cuts have closed three Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, including the only one in the Upper Peninsula.

• “Behind every clinic closure is a woman who has to drive two extra hours for care or go without it,” Benson said.

• New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, the state’s first Democratic woman governor, said party strategists drew the wrong lesson after 2024. Too many insiders concluded that Democrats needed to be crass and create a “male bro culture” to look tough, she said, but that approach has been unsuccessful while “steely-eyed women” have been successful. Voters, she says, value authenticity.

• Several nominees could break barriers. Gina Hinojosa would be the first Latina governor of Texas. In New Mexico, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland would be the first Native American woman to serve as a governor. Keisha Lance Bottoms would be Georgia’s first woman governor and the first Black woman to govern any state.

• “We didn’t believe as a country that the nation would elect a Black president … and it happened. So it’s possible, it just hasn’t happened yet. And for me, it’s much more personal … We can trace our family to a plantation in Crawfordville, Georgia,” Bottoms told ABC’s Linsey Davis.

• Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey chairs the Democratic Governors Association’s Women Governors Fund. Since 2018, the DGA has invested over $120 million to elect and re-elect the current class of Democratic women governors.

• Appearing with Bottoms at a rally in Georgia on Monday, Beshear announced the DGA was investing $5 million more into her race, which followed an announcement earlier this month of a $10 million investment in Bottoms’ race against billionaire businessman Rick Jackson.

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