“The gender gap will be one of the keys this year in Virginia”…and DEMOCRATS Have the Huge Advantage in the Number of Women Running!

Per VPAP:

• 45 *Democratic* women are runnning for the 100-member HoD vs. just 12 Republican women (down sharply from 2021)
• 21 *Democratic* women are running for the 40-member VA State Senate vs. just 7 Republican women. Advantage: Democrats!

Also, recall that: 

• “56% of the Democratic candidates running for the Senate and 50% of those running for the House are female”
• “49% of Democratic candidates for both the Senate and the House are candidates of color.”
•  On the Republican side, there’s a “predictable lack of diversity” – according to the WaPo, Republicans are “closer to 15 percent women and about 10 percent people of color”.

So this is a great thing on principle – for our representatives to reflect our actual demographic makeup (which is mostly does on the Democratic side, wildly DOES NOT on the Republican side) – but it also has implications for electoral success (or failure). As Sam Shirazi puts it (see below): “Democrats are hoping to run up the score with women given the abortion issue. The gender gap will be one of the keys this year in Virginia.” And that if the huge attendance and enthusiasm at last weekend’s Virginia Women’s Summit was any indication, Democrats are well on our way to doing just that; now we just need to “make it so,” as Star Trek Captain Jean-Luc Picard likes to say!