The following is a list of female U.S. presidential and vice-presidential nominees and invitees. Nominees are candidates nominated or otherwise selected by political parties for particular offices. Listed as nominees or nomination candidates are those women who achieved ballot access in at least one state (or, before the institution of government-printed ballots, had ballots circulated by their parties). They each may have won the nomination of one of the US political parties (either one of the two major parties or one of the third parties), or made the ballot as an Independent, and in either case must have votes in the election to qualify for this list. Exception is made for those few candidates whose parties lost ballot status for additional runs.
In 1872, Victoria Woodhull ran for President of the United States. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for President of the United States, some have questioned that priority given issues with the legality of her run. They disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because she was younger than the constitutionally mandated age of 35. But election coverage by contemporary newspapers does not suggest age was a significant issue. The presidential inauguration was in March 1873. Woodhull's 35th birthday was in September 1873.
In 1884, Belva Lockwood was the first woman (or second, depending on one's opinion, after Victoria Woodhull) to run for President of the United States. Her running mate was Marietta Stow. Stow was the first woman to run for vice president of the United States.[1]
Two women have won the vice-presidential nominations of major parties, Geraldine Ferraro for the Democratic Party in the 1984 election, and Sarah Palin for the Republican Party in the 2008 election. As of now, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the only female to have ever won the presidential nomination of a major party.[2][3] The first woman who was considered for a presidential candidacy by an incumbent President was Oveta Hobby by Dwight D. Eisenhower; he encouraged her to run in 1960, but she did not run.[4]
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States, and the first woman ever to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.[5] In the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be listed as a presidential candidate in every primary and caucus nationwide.[6] Despite losing the nomination in a close race against Barack Obama, Clinton won more votes in 2008 than any primary candidate in American history. Eight years late, on July 26, 2016, she officially won the Democratic presidential nomination.[7][8]
This list includes female candidates who have run or are currently running for President of the United States sorted by the amount of votes they received during their run. If the candidate did not win their party's nomination (therefore not qualifying for the general election) but still received over 30,000 votes during the primaries, those votes are listed instead of general election votes.
Candidates who failed to receive their parties' nomination (or who are currently campaigning for their party's nomination).
Year | Name | Party | Details | Nomination winner |
---|---|---|---|---|
1884 | Abigail Scott Duniway | Equal Rights Party | Rejected nomination. | Belva Ann Lockwood |
1920 | Laura Clay | Democratic Party | James M. Cox | |
Cora Wilson Stewart | ||||
1924 | Cora Wilson Stewart | Democratic Party | 1 vote on 1st and 15th ballots | John W. Davis |
1940 | Anna Milburn[45] | National Greenback Party | Declined nomination | John Zahnd |
1964 | Margaret Chase Smith[46] | Republican Party | Received 227,007 votes in Republican Primary and won 27 delegates at the 1964 Republican Convention | Barry Goldwater |
Fay T. Carpenter Swain | Democratic Party | 7,140 votes in Indiana primary[47] | Lyndon B. Johnson | |
1972 | Shirley Chisholm[46] | Democratic Party | 152 votes at National convention | George McGovern |
Patsy Takamoto Mink[46] | ||||
Bella Savitzky Abzug[46] | ||||
1976 | Barbara Jordan | Democratic Party | 1 vote at National convention | Jimmy Carter |
Ellen McCormack[46] | 22 votes at National convention | |||
1980 | Koryne Kaneski Horbal | Democratic Party | 5 votes at National convention | Jimmy Carter |
Alice Tripp | 2 votes at National convention | |||
1984 | Martha Kirkland | Democratic Party | 1 vote at National convention | Walter Mondale |
1988 | Patricia Schroeder | Democratic Party | Michael Dukakis | |
1992 | Tennie Rogers | Republican Party | 754 votes in Texas primary[48] | George H.W. Bush |
Georgiana Doerschuck | 58 votes in New Hampshire primary[49] | |||
Caroline Killeen | Democratic Party | 96 votes in New Hampshire primary[50] | Bill Clinton | |
1996 | Elvena E. Lloyd-Duffie | Democratic Party | 13,025 votes in Arkansas primary;[51] 10,876 votes (6th place) in Texas primary;[48] 40,758 in Oklahoma primary (3rd place);[52] 11,620 votes (3rd place) in Louisiana primary;[53] 15,650 votes (2nd place) in Illinois primary[53] | Bill Clinton |
Dr. Heather Anne Harder | 28,772 votes (3rd place) in Texas primary;[48] 376 votes in New Hampshire primary[54] and two write-in votes as a Republican; 6 votes in Illinois primary[51] | |||
Caroline Killeen | 118 votes in New Hampshire primary[50] | |||
Susan Gail Ducey | Republican Party | 539 votes in (9th place) at Arizona primary;[51] 152 votes (12th place) at New Hampshire primary;[55] 1,092 votes (8th place) at Texas primary[48] | Bob Dole | |
Isabell Masters | 1052 votes (7th place) at Oklahoma primary[56] | |||
Mary "France" LeTulle | 650 votes (9th place) at Texas primary;[48] 290 votes in Nevada primary[53] | |||
Georgiana Doerschuck | 140 votes in New Hampshire primary[49] | |||
Tennie Rogers | 35 votes at Mississippi primary; 12 votes inNew Hampshire primary[51] | |||
2000 | Dr. Heather Anne Harder | Democratic Party | 1,358 votes in AZ primary; 192 votes (8th place) in New Hampshire primary, 1 Republican write-in vote [57][58] | Al Gore |
Elizabeth Dole | Republican Party | 231 write-in votes in NH primary[57] | George W. Bush | |
Dorian Yeager | 98 votes (10th place) in New Hampshire primary[59] | |||
Angel Joy Chavis Rocker[60] | 6 votes in Alabama straw poll [61] | |||
2004 | Lorna Salzman | Green Party | 40 votes at National convention (5th place) | David Cobb |
JoAnne Bier Beeman | 14 votes at National convention | |||
Carol A. Miller | 10 votes at National convention | |||
Sheila Bilyeu | 2 votes at National convention | |||
Florence Walker | Democratic Party | 246 votes (6th place) in Washington, D.C. primary[62] | John Kerry | |
Katherine Bateman | 68 votes (14th place) in New Hampshire primary[62] | |||
Jeanne Chebib | 43 votes (12th place) in the Washington, D.C. primary[62] | |||
Caroline Killeen | 31 votes (19th place) in New Hampshire primary[62] | |||
Mildred T. Glover | 11 votes (22nd place) in New Hampshire primary; 4,039 votes (8th place) in Maryland primary[62] | |||
Carol Moseley Braun | Withdrew in January 2004; 103,189 votes[16] | |||
Millie Howard | Republican Party | 239 votes (13th place) in New Hampshire primary | George W. Bush | |
2008 | Hillary Clinton | Democratic Party | Reached second place in the Democratic Party primaries, winning 1,726½ Delegate votes and more primaries than any other woman in history, with 21 states won and more than 18 million votes, the race between Clinton and Obama was among the closest in history. | Barack Obama |
Caroline Killeen | 11 votes in New Hampshire primary | |||
Mary Ruwart | Libertarian Party | 152 votes at National Convention (2nd place; reached 1st place on 5th ballot before being defeated on 6th ballot) | Bob Barr | |
Christine Smith | 6 votes at National Convention (8th place) | |||
Kat Swift | Green Party | 38 votes at National Convention (3rd place) | Cynthia McKinney | |
Elaine Brown | Withdrew in December 2007; 9 pledged delegates (6th place) | |||
Nan Garrett | Withdrew in February 2007[63] | |||
Susan Gail Ducey | Republican Party | 2 votes (3-way tie for 8th place) in Tulsa, Oklahoma straw poll | John McCain | |
2012 | Roseanne Barr | Green Party | 72 votes at National Convention (2nd place) | Jill Stein |
Michele Bachmann | Republican Party | Withdrew in January 2012. | Mitt Romney | |
2016 | Carly Fiorina | Republican Party | Withdrew in February 2016 with 1 pledged delegate in Iowa (10th place with 40,572 votes)[64][65] | Donald Trump |
Year | Name | Party | Details | Nomination winner |
This list includes female candidates who have run or are currently running for Vice President of the United States and received over 100,000 votes. Note that the vote for Vice President is not separate in the United States and is tied together with whoever their running mate is.[66]
Indicates major-party nominee
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