19th century •
Lydia Maria Child and
Lucretia Mott received one vote apiece for president at the 1847 convention of the Liberty League, a caucus of the abolitionist
Liberty Party. Mott was a candidate for vice president at the rump Liberty Party's
1848 convention, where she finished fifth out of a field of nine candidates. •
Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to formally run for president. She announced her candidacy in a letter to the
New York Herald and was nominated by the national convention of the
Equal Rights Party for the
1872 election.
Frederick Douglass was nominated for vice president by the convention, but took no part in Woodhull's campaign. Only 33 at the time of the election, she was thus ineligible to serve as president due to the age requirement established by the
United States Constitution. ''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections'' records no votes for Woodhull in any state. •
Belva Ann Lockwood was twice a candidate for president, in
1884 and
1888. In 1884, she was nominated by the national convention of the Equal Rights Party, with
Marietta Stow for vice president. In a petition to the
United States Congress, Lockwood claimed to have received 4,149 votes in six states; she further alleged that election officials in
Pennsylvania had destroyed ballots bearing her name. The members of the
electoral college from
Indiana, after voting for
Grover Cleveland and
Thomas A. Hendricks as pledged, cast a ceremonial "complimentary vote" for Lockwood and Stow.
20th century • '''
Kate Richards O'Hare''' sought the vice presidential nomination of the
Socialist Party in 1916 and received 11,388 votes (35.6%) from party members, finishing second behind the eventual nominee,
George Ross Kirkpatrick. •
Laura Clay and
Cora Wilson Stewart received one vote apiece at the
1920 Democratic National Convention on the 33rd and 36th ballots, respectively. They were the first women voted for as candidates for president at the national convention of a major American political party. •
Marie C. Brehm was the vice presidential candidate of the
Prohibition Party in
1924. • Former
Wyoming Governor Nellie Tayloe Ross was a candidate for vice president at the
1928 Democratic National Convention. Her name was mentioned as a potential candidate as early as 1927, and the possibility of her nomination was the subject of serious speculation. Ross was formally nominated at the convention by Mrs. T. S. Oliver of Wyoming, who praised her "honesty, sincerity, and courage;" W. R. Chapman gave the seconding speech. She received 31 votes, finishing third out of a field of eleven candidates. •
Florence Garvin was the vice presidential candidate of the National Greenback Party in
1936. •
Charlotta Bass was the
Progressive Party nominee for vice president in
1952. She was the first Black woman nominated for the office by an American political party. •
Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith was a candidate for the
Republican Party nomination in 1964, becoming the first woman to seek the nomination of a major party for president. She qualified for the ballot in six state primaries and finished second in the Illinois primary with 25% of the vote. She became the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the presidency at the
national convention of a major political party. •
Charlene Mitchell was the first Black woman to run for president and the first to receive valid votes in a general election. She received 1,076 votes in four states (
California,
Minnesota,
Ohio, and
Washington) as the nominee of the
Communist Party in the
1968 election. •
New York Representative
Shirley Chisholm was the first woman to run in the
Democratic primary, the first Black candidate to contest the nomination of a major party, and the first such candidate to win a primary. She received the votes of 152 delegates at the
1972 Democratic National Convention, placing fourth in a field of 13 candidates. Her campaign drew support from prominent national feminist and civil rights leaders, including
Gloria Steinem and
Betty Friedan, who attempted unsuccessfully to stand as Chisholm delegates in the New York presidential primary. •
Hawaii Representative
Patsy Mink was a candidate in the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries. She was the first Asian American woman to run for president. •
Tonie Nathan, the
Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate in 1972, was the first woman to receive an electoral vote, via faithless elector
Roger MacBride. • New York Representative
Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman nominated for vice president by a major political party. Several figures had suggested the nomination of a female candidate ahead of the
1984 presidential election, including Kathy Bonk, communications director for the
National Organization for Women, and
Thomas E. Donilon, the national campaign coordinator for the
Walter Mondale campaign. Ferraro was selected from a field of potential running mates, including
Dianne Feinstein,
Barbara Mikulski, and
Pat Schroeder. Despite initial enthusiasm following her nomination, the Mondale–Ferarro ticket was defeated in the fall, carrying only Minnesota and
Washington, D.C. •
Lenora Fulani became the first woman, and first African American to achieve
ballot access and appear on the ballots of all fifty states as a candidate for President. Fulani was the nominee of the
New Alliance Party in the
1988 presidential election. Fulani was again a candidate in the
1992 election. •
Winona LaDuke was the vice presidential nominee of the
Green Party in
1996 and
2000 elections. • Former
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole ran for the Republican presidential nomination in
2000, but withdrew prior to the
primaries.
21st century •
Illinois Senator
Carol Mosely Braun ran in the
2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries. She withdrew from the race on January 15, 2004, four days before the
Iowa caucus. •
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was the second woman nominated for vice president by a major party and the first woman nominated by a
Republican National Convention. She and her running mate,
Arizona Senator
John McCain, lost the
2008 United States presidential election to their Democratic challengers, Illinois Senator
Barack Obama and
Delaware Senator
Joe Biden. • New York Senator
Hillary Clinton became the first woman to appear on the ballot in every state and territory in the
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Despite narrowly losing the nomination, Clinton won more votes in 2008 than any female primary candidate in American history. Clinton later became the first woman nominated for president by a major party after winning a majority of pledged delegates in the
2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, and was formally nominated by the
Democratic National Convention on July 26, 2016. As a major party nominee, Clinton became the first woman to participate in a
presidential debate and the first to carry a state in a general election. Clinton became the first woman to win the national popular vote, receiving nearly 66 million ballots to
Donald Trump's 63 million, but lost the electoral college and thus the presidency. • The Green Party has run a female candidate for president four times:
Cynthia McKinney in 2008 and
Jill Stein in 2012, 2016, and 2024. Stein's 1.5 million votes in 2016 represent the third-largest total for a female presidential candidate in U.S. history as of 2024.
Pat LaMarche in 2004,
Rosa Clemente in 2008,
Cheri Honkala in 2012, and
Angela Nicole Walker in 2020 were Green Party candidates for vice president. • The
Party for Socialism and Liberation has nominated a female presidential candidate in every election which the party has contested:
Gloria La Riva in 2008, 2016, and 2020;
Peta Lindsay in 2012, and
Claudia De la Cruz in 2024. (La Riva in 2016 and 2020 and De la Cruz in 2024 were jointly nominated by the
Peace and Freedom Party.) •
Minnesota Representative
Michele Bachmann was a candidate in the
2012 Republican Party presidential primaries. On August 13, 2011, she won the
Ames Straw Poll with 28.6% of the vote, the first woman to do so. Despite this, she finished sixth in the
Iowa caucus and suspended her campaign shortly thereafter, on January 4, 2012. •
Roseanne Barr was a candidate in the
2012 Green Party presidential primaries. She was defeated by Stein, and subsequently ran as the nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party, garnering 67,326 votes. •
Carly Fiorina was a candidate in the
2016 Republican Party presidential primaries before suspending her campaign on February 10, 2016. On April 27,
Texas Senator
Ted Cruz announced Fiorina would be his vice presidential running mate in the event he won the Republican nomination; however, Cruz withdrew from the race on May 3 after losing the
Indiana primary. •
Faith Spotted Eagle received a faithless electoral vote from Washington in 2016, becoming the first Indigenous American to receive an electoral vote for president. • Six women ran in the
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries:
Massachusetts Senator
Elizabeth Warren,
California Senator
Kamala Harris, Minnesota Senator
Amy Klobuchar, New York Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand,
Hawaii Representative
Tulsi Gabbard, and author
Marianne Williamson. All six women subsequently participated in at least one televised debate. Prior to 2020, only five women had ever appeared on a major party's primary debate stage (Chisholm in 1972, Braun in 2004, Bachman in 2012, Clinton in 2008 and 2016, and Fiorina in 2016). The opening night of the first
debate, which took place on June 26–27, 2019, was a major milestone, as it featured three women: Warren, Klobuchar, and Gabbard; Harris, Gillibrand, and Williamson participated on the second night. This was the first major party presidential primary in which multiple women competed. •
Jo Jorgensen was the
Libertarian nominee for president in
2020. She is the first woman to be nominated for president by that party. Jorgensen's 1.9 million votes represent the second-highest total for a female presidential candidate. • Harris was subsequently the
2020 Democratic vice presidential candidate. She became the first female, Black, and Asian American vice president upon winning the 2020 election, defeating the Republican candidate, incumbent Vice President
Mike Pence. Following
Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 election, Harris announced
her candidacy for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. On July 22, she received enough pledged delegate support to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. She later went on be officially nominated by the Democratic National Convention by roll call on August 6, 2024, but lost to former president
Donald Trump in the general election. • Williamson challenged Biden in the
2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Although she did not win pledged delegate support in any contest, her 473,761 votes represented the third-best showing for any candidate, behind Biden and Minnesota Representative
Dean Phillips. (
Uncommitted delegates received 706,591 votes.) After twice suspending and resuming her campaign, Williamson ended her candidacy for the last time on June 29, 2024, after deciding not to challenge Harris at the
2024 Democratic National Convention. • Former
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley ran in the
2024 Republican Party presidential primaries. She received 97 delegates and over 4 million popular votes, finishing second to the eventual nominee, former President Donald Trump. She became the first woman to win a Republican primary after carrying
Vermont and the
District of Columbia. == Presidential candidates ==