Will Ohio ever elect a woman as U.S. senator? Barbara Palmer and Madelyn Pyles

BEREA, Ohio — Ohio has never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate. The number of states that are members of this club is rapidly declining: Only 17 states have never elected a female senator. But this year, there are three women running in Ohio’s U.S. Senate primaries, suggesting that this could change.

Looking at the career paths that lead to the U.S. Senate may provide some insight. Among the senators currently serving, there are 24 women. At first glance, it appears that the men and women in the Senate have similar political backgrounds and experience. Eighty-eight percent of the women and 84% of the men had been elected to at least one local, state, or federal office prior to serving in the U.S. Senate.

The most common prior political office was the U.S. House. About half of all senators have served in the “lower chamber” — 46% of the women and 47% of the men. Unsurprisingly, statewide office was also a common path to the U.S. Senate for both women and men, with 42% of the female senators and 43% of male senators successfully running for governor or other statewide office prior to running for the U.S. Senate.

However, a deeper dive suggests this is not the entire story. Half of the women in the U.S. Senate have served in their state legislature, while only 37% of the men have. And 58% of the women have served in multiple political offices compared to only 47% of the men. Women who have successfully been elected to the Senate tend to have much longer political resumes.

All of this suggests that the road to the U.S. Senate usually goes through prior elective office, especially for women, which can help us understand the situation in Ohio. Ohio has never elected a woman as governor. In fact, no woman has ever run under a major party label for governor. Only nine women have ever served in any of Ohio’s statewide offices in the entire history of the state. Currently, there are no women serving in statewide office.

Ohio’s record of sending women to the U.S. House is not much better. From 2013 until 2021, almost a decade, the same three women represented Ohio: Marcy Kaptur, Marcia Fudge, and Joyce Beatty. None of these women decided to make the leap to the U.S. Senate. In the Ohio Statehouse, less than a third of the legislators are women.

Among the last ten men who have represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate, nine of them had been elected to another public office prior to serving. Eight of them had served in multiple public offices. The last time Ohio elected a senator with no prior political experience was John Glenn in 1974.

But this year, there are two women running in the Democratic primary, Morgan Harper and Traci Johnson. On the Republican side, one of the seven candidates is a woman, Jane Timken. None of them has successfully run for public office prior to running for Senate.

Ohio does not have much of a female “farm team” for U.S. Senate, given the low numbers of women in statewide office, the U.S. House, and the state legislature. So perhaps the fact that there are three women running this year is a miracle in and of itself. These three women have decided to try to make history and take an alternate route to Capitol Hill.

Barbara Palmer is professor of political science and executive director of the Center for Women and Politics of Ohio at Baldwin Wallace University. Madelyn Pyles is an undergraduate research fellow at the center.

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