It’s looking like the 2016 election could be the “Year of the Woman” in Delaware, with three strong female candidates topping the ballot this November.
The original “Year of the Woman”was in 1992, the same year Bill Clinton was elected president. That year, six women were elected to Congress, bringing total female representation up to about 5 percent.
A quarter century later, Hillary Clinton is topping the ballot as the Democratic candidate for president. And she’s joined in Delaware by two other female candidates: Lisa Blunt Rochester and Bethany Hall-Long. Both are Democrats who are running for two of the state’s highest elected offices: the US House of Representatives and Lt. Governor, respectively.
Female representation in Congress is still at a “dismal” 20 percent, according to Lindsay Hoffman, associate director for the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication. But she said the symbolism of so many women on the ballot can be powerful.
“As we see women winning these important elections and becoming more visible they do provide a sense of a role model for young women in college and possibly younger than that to see that they possibly could do the same thing,” Hoffman said.
Young women and minorities are entering a different world than previous generations. Children under the age of eight have never known an America without an African American president.
If Blunt Rochester wins in November she’ll be the first woman and the first African American to be elected to represent Delaware in either the US House or Senate.
Hall-Long would be the second female Lt. Governor in Delaware.
Clinton has already made history this election cycle, becoming the first female presidential nominee for a major political party.
