scorecard14 women who have run for President of the United States
  1. Home
  2. Latest
  3. 14 women who have run for President of the United States

14 women who have run for President of the United States

1872: Victoria Woodhull

14 women who have run for President of the United States

1884 and 1888: Belva Lockwood

1884 and 1888: Belva Lockwood

Lockwood also ran as a candidate of the Equal Rights Party, and in 1884, she garnered just over 4,000 votes in six states, according to the National Women's History Museum.

She was educated as a lawyer and single-handedly lobbied Congress until they passed a law allowing female attorneys to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1880, she became the very first woman to do so.

She died in 1917 after a four-decade law career.

1964: Margaret Chase Smith

1964: Margaret Chase Smith

Smith's political career began when her husband fell ill and urged her to run for his seat in the House of Representatives. She won the special election on June 3, 1940 — the first day of her three-decade political career in the House and Senate.

She announced her bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964. "I have few illusions and no money, but I'm staying for the finish," she said at the time. "When people keep telling you you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try."

Smith lost every primary, but at the Republican National Convention, she became the first woman to have her name put in for nomination by a major political party. She retired to her Maine hometown in 1972 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom before her death in 1995.

1972: Shirley Chisholm

1972: Shirley Chisholm

In 1968, Brooklyn native Chisholm became the first African American woman elected to Congress. Her campaign slogan was "unbought and unbossed."

She announced her run for the Democratic nomination in 1972 and earned 151 delegate votes before withdrawing from the race.

"I don't want to be remembered as the first black woman who went to Congress. And I don't even want to be remembered as the first woman who happened to be black to make the bid for the presidency," she once said. "I want to be remembered as a woman who fought for change in the 20th century."

Chisholm retired from the House of Representatives in 1983 and died in 2005.

1972: Patsy Takemoto Mink

1972: Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mink was the first woman of color elected to Congress. She served 12 years in the House as a representative of her home state, Hawaii, and even made a brief run for the presidency in 1972. She was on the primary ballot in Oregon, where she ran on an anti-war platform.

Mink later worked in President Jimmy Carter's administration and returned to the House of Representatives for 13 more years starting in 1990. Throughout her political career, she championed women's rights and wrote landmark legislation to promote gender equity in schools. She died in 2002.

1976 and 1980: Ellen McCormack

1976 and 1980: Ellen McCormack

McCormack was a divisive candidate who ran on an anti-abortion platform. Her mission was to overturn Roe v. Wade with a constitutional amendment banning abortion. (She was also opposed to the death penalty and the Vietnam war.)

Despite the fact that she had no previous political experience, McCormack appeared on the primary ballots of 18 states — more than any other woman before her — and earned more votes than some male candidates. She was the first female presidential hopeful to get Secret Service protection, too.

McCormack died in 2011 at the age of 84.

1984: Sonia Johnson

1984: Sonia Johnson

Johnson began her life as a fifth generation Mormon — but she ended up a radical feminist.

She was excommunicated from the Mormon church in 1979 because of her fervent support for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the proposed constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed equal rights for women. (The Mormons publicly opposed the ERA.) She was even arrested after chaining herself to the gate of a Mormon temple while wearing a pro-ERA button (as seen in this photo).

Johnson ran for president in 1984 as a candidate of the Citizen's Party, earning just over 70,000 votes, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

"If we'd had any democracy in the last 210 years, at least some of our presidents would have been women," she told the Milwaukee Journal during her campaign. "There have to be voices saying a woman should be president."

Johnson is currently 80 years old.

1988: Patricia Schroeder

1988: Patricia Schroeder

When Schroeder graduated from Harvard Law School in 1964, she was one of 15 women in a class of more than 500. Eight years later, she was elected to the House of Representatives — where she was one of just 14 women. (She once described the House as being like "an over–aged frat house," according to her official government bio.)

Schroder sought the Democratic nomination in 1988 but dropped out due to a lack of funding.

She continued to serve in the House until 1997, and fought tirelessly for women during her tenure. She was a supporter of the ERA, and helped pass the both the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and Family and Medical Leave Act. Today, she lives in Florida, where she teaches and remains active in politics.

1988 and 1992: Lenora Fulani

1988 and 1992: Lenora Fulani

In 1988, Fulani was the first woman and the first African American to appear on the ballot in all fifty states. She won 225,000 votes, which was the highest a female candidate ever received in a general election. She tried again in 1992 — the year Bill Clinton eventually won the presidency.

Fulani, an Independent, has long fought against the two-party system that dominates American politics.

Today, she is 66 years old and continues her political activism in New York City.

2000: Elizabeth Dole

2000: Elizabeth Dole

By the time Dole announced her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, she had already served as Secretary of Transportation under Ronald Reagan, Secretary of Labor under George H.W. Bush, and the head of the American Red Cross. (Safe to say her high school classmates got it right when they voted her "most likely to succeed.")

She eventually withdrew from the race due to lack of funds, though she managed to raise more money than any previous female candidate for the presidency.

After resigning from the Red Cross, Dole ran for Senate, and in 2002, became the first female Senator from North Carolina. She retired in 2009 and went on to establish a nonprofit that benefits military families. Today, she is 79 years old.

2004: Carol Moseley Braun

2004: Carol Moseley Braun

In 1992, Chicago-born Braun became the first African-American woman elected to the Senate. Her campaign focused on welfare reform, public education, and gun control.

"I cannot escape the fact that I come to the Senate as a symbol of hope and change," Braun said after her swearing-in. "Nor would I want to, because my presence in and of itself will change the U.S. Senate."

She lost her bid for reelection in 1998 but went on to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand. Three years later, she vied for the Democratic nomination but withdrew just before the Iowa caucuses. Since then, Braun, now 68, has run for mayor of Chicago, launched an organic food company, and started a private law practice.

2008 and 2016: Hillary Clinton

2008 and 2016: Hillary Clinton

Clinton is the only First Lady of the United States to be elected to public office. She was won a seat in the Senate in 2000 and was reelected in 2006.

In 2008, she lost the Democratic primary to Barack Obama, but received more than 18 million votes. She called them "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling."

Eight years later and after a term as Obama's Secretary of State — Clinton is the Democratic party's newest nominee for President of the United States.

2012: Michelle Bachmann

2012: Michelle Bachmann

Bachmann worked in Minnesota state legislature before her election to the House of Representatives in 2006. She was one of the founders of the controversial, ultra-conservative Tea Party Caucus.

She made a run for the Republican nomination in 2012, but performed poorly at the Iowa caucus and decided to withdraw. Two years later, she retired from the House.

In addition to raising her own five children, Bachmann and her husband took in 23 foster children over the course of five years.

2016: Carly Fiorina

2016: Carly Fiorina

Before she entered 2016's crowded race for the Republican nomination, Carly Fiorina was known as the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 business. (\She was named CEO of Hewlett-Packard in 1999.

After her resignation from HP, Fiorina chaired political and nonprofit organizations, advised John McCain's presidential campaign, and lost a race for a Senate.

Fiorina, now 61, ended her presidential campaign in February 2016.

Advertisement