NJ women make gains in House races, but Senate seat remains out of reach
A new national report on women candidates finds New Jersey near the middle of the pack, but still without a woman who has ever served in the U.S. Senate.
Democratic congressional candidate Rebecca Bennett and her family celebrated her nomination on the evening of New Jersey’s primary elections. (Rebecca Bennett for Congress via Facebook)
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Chris Howell | Thursday, June 4, 2026
New Jersey women are running for Congress at a solid clip this cycle, but a new national report highlights a persistent gap. No woman has ever served in the United States Senate from New Jersey.
The data comes from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, which released a post-primary analysis on Tuesday examining how women fared in races across six states that held primaries on June 2, including New Jersey.
In New Jersey’s House races, women make 6 of the 22 major-party nominees. The breakdown is sharply uneven by party. Five of the twelve Democratic nominees are women, compared to just one of the ten Republican nominees.
The report specifically flags Rebecca Bennett, the Democratic nominee in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, as the only woman challenger in the state running in a contest not currently favoring the incumbent. Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot who won the June 2 Democratic primary, will face Republican incumbent Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in a race Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up.
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The Senate picture is starker. Sen. Cory Booker is running for re-election in 2026, and while the CAWP report notes that no woman filed to challenge him in the primary, the deeper story is structural.
New Jersey has never sent a woman to the Senate in its history. No other state on the June 2 primary calendar shares that distinction — Iowa is replacing retiring Sen. Joni Ernst with another woman nominee, Rep. Ashley Hinson, and Montana has a woman Democratic nominee for its open Senate seat.
Among the six states that held primaries Tuesday, Iowa stands out in women’s representation in House races. Half of the Hawkeye State’s nominees are women, with three of four contests in the state rated as toss-ups. New Jersey’s 27.3% overall rate trails that, though its Democratic nominee rate of 41.7% is comparable.
In New Mexico, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and, if she prevails in November, would become the first Native American woman governor in United States history. Her running mate, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, would make their ticket only the eighth all-woman gubernatorial ticket in American history.
At the other end of the spectrum, Montana had zero women nominees for its four House seats. No woman has represented Montana in Congress since 1943. South Dakota had no women file for Senate or governor.
Nationally, CAWP reports a record 72 women have filed to run for governor, surpassing the previous record of 69 set in 2022. Filing deadlines remain in seven states, meaning that number could still rise.
The full CAWP analysis is available at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.