Minnesota voters made history this week advancing women as nominees in two big ballot races.
The primary resulted in nominations of female candidates from both major parties for governor and U.S. senator.
DFLer Amy Klobuchar will face Republican Lisa Demuth in the governor's race. Republican Michele Tafoya is up against Democrat Peggy Flanagan for an open Senate seat.
Kelly Dittmar, director of research and scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said Minnesota's setup is unprecedented.
"It's the first time that we have a state that is going to have what we would call all-women contests at both the gubernatorial and Senate level in one election cycle," she said.
Dittmar said it’s rare to see head-to-head matchups of women in major congressional or statewide races.
“These are highly coveted seats, and voters are putting women in the position to to claim them,” she said. “It gives us knowledge that we're all but guaranteed to have women in those offices at the end of this as a result of this election.”
Whomever wins the election for governor will be the first woman to hold that office.
The only way it wouldn’t happen is if one of the nominees leaves the ticket due to an unforeseen scandal, serious health issue or death. There is also a extremely longshot chance that the Green Party’s Steven Young could prevail or a write-in campaign gains steam.
Minnesota is among 18 states to never elect a woman as governor, a list that includes neighboring Wisconsin and North Dakota. Utah also shares that distinction, but the state has had a woman as governor through succession.
In the Senate race, there are two more women whose names will be on the ballot: Libertarian Rebecca Whiting and independent Marisa Simonetti.
Minnesota has had three women serving as U.S. senator, beginning with the appointed Muriel Humphrey after her husband’s death; she served a bit more than 10 months and didn’t run to fill out the uncompleted term. Klobuchar was the first to win a Senate seat in 2006. She and Sen. Tina Smith have been an all-woman duo since 2018.
All of Minnesota’s women in the U.S. Senate have been Democrats, meaning a Tafoya victory would make history as the first Republican woman Minnesota voters have elected to the chamber.
Minnesota’s House delegation currently has a five-to-three female majority that includes women in both parties.
Flanagan, Tafoya and Demuth have additional barriers they could break.
Demuth, currently Minnesota’s House speaker, would be the state’s first governor who is a person of color.
Flanagan, currently the lieutenant governor, would be the first Indigenous woman elected U.S. senator.
Tafoya, who is making her first run for office after a career in sports broadcasting, has Hispanic heritage.
