Feb 12, 2005
Has a Woman Ever Won Delegates to a National Political Convention?
Paul Overberg, in USA Today (2-10-05):
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's early lead in a poll testing Democrats' 2008 presidential preferences represents a breakthrough for women in politics. Though other women have tried, none has ever gained enough support to have a serious chance of winning the White House.
Beginning in 1872, when suffragette Victoria Woodhull ran as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party, at least 22 women have sought the presidency of the United States.
Only two of their campaigns made it all the way to a major party convention: Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, who received 27 first ballot votes at the 1964 Republican National Convention, and Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York, the first African-American woman to run for president. Chisholm won 151 votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. More recently, the candidacies of several other prominent women politicians have collapsed before the primaries:
* In 2004, former Illinois senator Carol Moseley Braun dropped out of the Democratic race before any votes were cast.
* In 2000, former Cabinet secretary Elizabeth Dole, now the senior senator from North Carolina, dropped her bid for the GOP nomination because she couldn't raise enough money.
* In 1988, the same problem plagued then-congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, who considered seeking the Democratic nomination.
Raising money should not be a problem for Clinton: She has raked in more than $40 million for her own campaigns and has been a top fundraiser for other Democrats....
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's early lead in a poll testing Democrats' 2008 presidential preferences represents a breakthrough for women in politics. Though other women have tried, none has ever gained enough support to have a serious chance of winning the White House.
Beginning in 1872, when suffragette Victoria Woodhull ran as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party, at least 22 women have sought the presidency of the United States.
Only two of their campaigns made it all the way to a major party convention: Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, who received 27 first ballot votes at the 1964 Republican National Convention, and Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York, the first African-American woman to run for president. Chisholm won 151 votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. More recently, the candidacies of several other prominent women politicians have collapsed before the primaries:
* In 2004, former Illinois senator Carol Moseley Braun dropped out of the Democratic race before any votes were cast.
* In 2000, former Cabinet secretary Elizabeth Dole, now the senior senator from North Carolina, dropped her bid for the GOP nomination because she couldn't raise enough money.
* In 1988, the same problem plagued then-congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, who considered seeking the Democratic nomination.
Raising money should not be a problem for Clinton: She has raked in more than $40 million for her own campaigns and has been a top fundraiser for other Democrats....