Florida's Wait for a Woman Governor Continues, but Diversity Still Wins

Celeste Katz
Updated
Gwen Graham’s campaign ended in a shocker as Democratic primary voters gave Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum the chance to become Florida's first African-American governor.

Florida is one of 22 states that’s never had a woman governor. And after this week…the wait goes on.

Women running in Florida, Arizona, and Oklahoma added new wins (and losses) in Tuesday’s closely watched primaries in what’s been a historic midterm election cycle for female candidates across the country.

Glamour is keeping track. Here’s what you need to know about this week’s hottest contests:

A Shocker, but a Historic Win in Florida:

Gwen Graham’s campaign ended in a shocker as Democratic primary voters gave Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum the chance to become the Sunshine State’s governor. In a seven-way race, Gillum, a progressive supported by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, swept past Graham, the daughter of a former Florida governor.

The win ended Graham’s chances of joining a record number of women nominated for governor—and Senate, and the House—in this year’s midterms.

But Gillum's historic win got a warm reception, as it gives him the chance to become Florida's first African-American governor.

The former congresswoman threw her support to Gillum, who goes up against President Donald Trump’s pick on the GOP side, Rep. Ron DeSantis, in November: “The truth is after 20 years of one-party rule, Florida simply can’t afford another Republican governor,” tweeted Graham after the vote. “That’s why I’ve pledged to do everything I can to help Mayor Gillum defeat DeSantis in November.”

DeSantis, appearing on Fox News, said Gillum is “much too liberal” for Florida, calling for the state not to “monkey this up” when it comes to November’s midterms. "The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state," he said of the man who could become Florida’s first black governor, sparking online conversation about the racist undertones of his criticism.

Back on the Congressional side, more than half of Florida’s female House candidates—18 of 30—were women of color. Notably, according to the non-partisan Gender Watch 2018 project, all the Republican women candidates identified as black, Latina, or Asian-American. Here's how those races played out:

  • Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is retiring. To replace her in Florida's 27th Congressional District, Democrats nominated Donna Shalala, a onetime University of Miami president who served as U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under then-President Bill Clinton. Republicans chose television host and commentator Maria Elvira Salazar.

  • In the 18th District, former Obama Administration official Lauren Baer won the Democratic nomination to go up against incumbent GOP Rep. Brian Mast. If she defeats him this fall, Baer, a policy advisor to then-Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, could become the first woman to serve in Congress as a partner in a same-sex marriage.

  • And in the 26th District just south of Parkland, Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a nonprofit consultant, will take on incumbent Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who has a record of being critical of the president. Mucarsel-Powell came to the U.S. as a teenager from Ecuador, where, as she has said during the campaign, her father was shot and killed by a criminal. Following yet another mass shooting in Florida, this time at a video game tournament, the gun-control debate will likely be at the forefront of this race.

Arizona to Send a Woman to the Senate:

Primaries in the border state of Arizona went down against the backdrop of the weekend death of longtime Sen. John McCain, the famously independent Republican who bucked Trump on everything from health care to foreign policy. Gov. Doug Ducey will appoint a Republican to succeed McCain, who died at 81 after a brain cancer diagnosis.

But for the first time, Arizona is all but sure to send a woman to the Senate: The state’s other senator, Republican Jeff Flake, is retiring, and the nominees who will compete to replace him as a result of Tuesday’s primaries are GOP Rep. Martha McSally and Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

Gender Watch marked the McSally-Sinema showdown as the sixth all-female Senate contest of the 2018 cycle.

McSally defeated two rivals for the Republican nomination: Former state Sen. Kelli Ward and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who got a pardon from Trump after a contempt conviction related to his treatment of suspected illegal immigrants. McSally was supported by the president—although she publicly called him out in 2016 for “disgusting” past comments he’d made about women. The Air Force veteran observed a moment of silence for McCain at her victory party. (Ward, by contrast, blamed the media for criticism she fielded for suggesting McCain tried to hurt her campaign by announcing he was stopping cancer treatment.)

The race could get ugly—or uglier.

In a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, McSally has not only played up her military record, but went after Sinema in an attack ad for attending a 2003 anti-war rally in a pink tutu. Sinema, whose biography notes she grew up in a family so poor they once lived without running water, was a social worker at the time.

Meanwhile, Republicans nominated Lea Marquez Peterson, head of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber, to fill McSally's District 2 seat. Democrats handed former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick a chance to return to Congress after she left the House to wage an unsuccessful 2016 run against McCain.

In Arizona Congressional District 8, incumbent Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko will be challenged in November by Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a emergency room doctor who emigrated to the U.S. from India at age 3. Their race is a rematch: The two faced off in a February special election to replace GOP Rep. Trent Franks, who resigned after a scandal over his behavior toward female members of his staff, including a former aide who accused him of offering her $5 million to carry his child as a surrogate mother.

Further down the ballot, in an uncontested race, January Contreras won the Democratic nomination for state attorney general. If she wins in the fall, she’ll be Arizona’s first Latina statewide elected officer.

Who Will Replace Oklahoma's Woman Governor?

With two-term Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, unable to run again because of term limits, Sooner State voters chose businessman Kevin Stitt over Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett for the GOP nomination to succeed her. Stitt faces former state Attorney General Drew Edmonson, a Democrat, and Chris Powell, a Libertarian, on Nov. 6.

In Oklahoma's Fifth District, Democrat Kendra Horn, a former political consultant and first-time candidate, will try to unseat GOP Rep. Steve Russell this fall. In House District 4, Democrat Mary Brannon, an educator, will go up against incumbent GOP Rep. Tom Cole.

Still to come: Primaries in Massachusetts, Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, and Louisiana. Stay tuned, and brush up on your voting rights knowledge here.

Celeste Katz is senior politics reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.

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