Women have sought the U.S. presidency for more than 150 years, long before they could vote nationwide. Their campaigns have ranged from early equality movements to major-party primaries and modern general elections. The history of women who ran for president shows how candidates challenged legal and political barriers, built new constituencies, and changed expectations about who can lead. It also reveals an important distinction: many women have run, but only a small number have won a major party’s presidential nomination.
Early Campaigns Before Women Had the Right to Vote
The first known woman to run for president was Victoria Woodhull, nominated in 1872 by the Equal Rights Party. A financial broker and women’s rights advocate, Woodhull campaigned for equal rights and political reform. She was 34 on Election Day, younger than the Constitution’s minimum presidential age of 35. Women also lacked a nationwide constitutional right to vote, though some could vote in limited circumstances under state or territorial law.
Woodhull’s candidacy was largely symbolic. She faced barriers to campaigning and voting, and accounts differ on how widely her name appeared on ballots. Her run nevertheless established an early precedent: women could publicly seek the nation’s highest office even when the political system denied them equal participation. The National Park Service’s account of Woodhull describes her candidacy as a milestone in the history of women’s political participation.
Belva Ann Lockwood, a lawyer and advocate for women’s rights, ran in 1884 and 1888 as the nominee of the National Equal Rights Party. She campaigned on equal pay for equal work, civil rights, and peace. Lockwood argued that women’s legal citizenship should include political opportunity. She received thousands of votes in 1884, although election records from the period are incomplete and her support was limited compared with that of the major-party candidates.
These early campaigns occurred decades before the 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, prohibited denying the vote on the basis of sex. The amendment expanded women’s access to the ballot, but it did not erase other restrictions, including racial discrimination that continued to prevent many Black women from voting. Nor did it guarantee women equal access to party leadership, campaign funding, or media coverage.
Major-Party Primaries Begin to Open
In 1964, Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican U.S. senator from Maine, became the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major-party convention. She had announced her candidacy earlier that year and challenged the assumption that the presidency was exclusively a man’s role. Smith received 27 votes at the Republican National Convention. Although she did not come close to winning the nomination, her campaign reached voters through the formal machinery of a major party.
Smith’s effort was followed by campaigns that increasingly competed in primaries rather than relying only on convention votes. The shift toward state-by-state primaries made candidates’ organization, fundraising, and voter outreach more visible. It also created additional opportunities for women to test support and build national recognition, though access to donors and party networks remained unequal.
Shirley Chisholm’s Historic 1972 Campaign
Shirley Chisholm, a New York congresswoman, entered the 1972 Democratic presidential race with the slogan “Unbought and Unbossed.” She was the first Black woman to seek the presidential nomination of a major U.S. political party and the first woman to seek the Democratic nomination. Chisholm campaigned on education, employment, economic justice, and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Her candidacy confronted both racism and sexism. Chisholm often had to overcome skepticism from political leaders and limited access to campaign resources. She won delegates and reached the Democratic National Convention, where she received 152 first-ballot votes, according to the convention’s recorded results. She did not win the nomination, but her campaign demonstrated that a woman of color could build a national constituency and participate directly in the party’s presidential contest.
Another woman in the 1972 Democratic primaries was Patsy Takemoto Mink, a congresswoman from Hawaii. Mink opposed the Vietnam War and challenged the administration’s policies. Her campaign was brief, but it added an Asian American woman’s voice to the presidential field and highlighted how candidates outside the political establishment could use primaries to raise issues.
Third-Party and Independent Candidates Expand the Field
Women also used minor-party and independent campaigns to advance causes that major parties were slow to adopt. Ellen McCormack ran in Democratic primaries in 1976, emphasizing opposition to abortion. Her campaign gained ballot access in several states and received federal matching funds under the rules then in effect. McCormack showed how a candidate could use a presidential campaign to give a single issue sustained national attention, even without a realistic path to the nomination.
In 1988, Lenora Fulani ran for president with the New Alliance Party. She became the first woman and the first African American to appear on the ballot in all 50 states during a presidential election, according to historical accounts of her campaign. Fulani had also run in 1984. Her campaigns advocated political reform and sought to increase visibility for candidates outside the two-party system.
Jill Stein became the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016. Her campaigns focused on climate policy, health care, and economic inequality. In 2020, Jo Jorgensen became the Libertarian Party’s first woman presidential nominee. These campaigns did not win the presidency, but they illustrate how third-party nominees can bring policy positions into public debate and appear on ballots across many states.
Third-party candidates face substantial structural challenges. State ballot-access rules vary, and campaigns must meet different petition and filing requirements. They also tend to receive less media attention and have fewer resources than Democratic and Republican nominees. A candidate’s presence on the ballot therefore does not necessarily mean equal opportunity to compete.
Women in Republican and Democratic Primaries
In 2008, Hillary Rodham Clinton made a serious bid for the Democratic nomination, becoming the first woman to win a major-party presidential primary contest. She competed closely with Barack Obama and won millions of votes before ending her campaign. Her run helped establish that a woman could compete for a major-party nomination across the full primary calendar.
Women also sought the Republican nomination in the modern primary era. Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, ran in 2012 and won the Iowa Republican straw poll. Carly Fiorina, a former business executive, competed in the 2016 Republican primaries. Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, ran in the 2026 Republican primaries and remained in the race after several early contests. Each campaign brought a woman’s candidacy into major-party debates, though none secured the nomination.
Democratic candidates continued to broaden the field. Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman, ran in the 2020 Democratic primaries. Marianne Williamson, an author and political activist, also sought the Democratic nomination in 2020 and again in 2026. Primary campaigns can shape party platforms and public discussion even when candidates do not become nominees.
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Nomination
In 2016, Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. She won the Democratic nomination after a competitive primary season and selected Virginia senator Tim Kaine as her running mate. Her candidacy marked a major institutional milestone: a woman led a major party’s national ticket and competed in every state’s general-election contest.
Clinton won the national popular vote but lost the Electoral College to Republican nominee Donald Trump. The outcome underscored the difference between winning the most votes nationwide and securing the state-by-state electoral votes required to become president. Her campaign also highlighted the intense scrutiny faced by women candidates, including debates over leadership style, experience, media treatment, and gender expectations.
Kamala Harris and the 2026 Election
Kamala Harris became the first woman vice president in 2021. In 2026, after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, she became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Harris was the first Black woman and first Asian American woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. She ran with Minnesota governor Tim Walz and lost the general election to Donald Trump.
Harris’s nomination built on a long history of women seeking the office, while also reflecting the changing composition of American political leadership. Her campaign made the question of representation especially visible, but the result reinforced that nomination and election are separate hurdles. Women have reached the top of major-party tickets; no woman has yet been elected U.S. president.
How Presidential Campaigns Have Changed
The path to a presidential campaign has changed considerably since Woodhull’s era. Early candidates relied on speeches, newspapers, and political networks. Modern campaigns use televised debates, digital advertising, online fundraising, social media, and extensive voter data. Candidates must also navigate primary schedules, party rules, campaign-finance laws, and state ballot-access requirements.
These changes can create new openings, but they do not remove longstanding barriers. Fundraising remains crucial, and candidates who lack established donor networks may struggle to compete. Media coverage can shape perceptions of a candidate’s credibility and electability. Research by the Pew Research Center and other political researchers has documented persistent public debate about gender and leadership, although voter attitudes vary by party, age, and other factors.
It is also useful to distinguish between running for president, winning a party nomination, and winning the election. Many women have filed, campaigned, or competed in primaries. A smaller number have earned delegates or become third-party nominees. Only Clinton in 2016 and Harris in 2026 have led major-party presidential tickets as women nominees, and neither won the presidency.
Key Milestones in the History of Women Presidential Candidates
| Year | Candidate | Historical significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1872 | Victoria Woodhull | First known woman to run for president |
| 1884 and 1888 | Belva Ann Lockwood | Early presidential candidate and women’s rights advocate |
| 1964 | Margaret Chase Smith | First woman nominated for president at a major-party convention |
| 1972 | Shirley Chisholm | First Black woman to seek a major-party presidential nomination |
| 1988 | Lenora Fulani | First woman and African American candidate on the ballot in all 50 states |
| 2016 | Hillary Clinton | First woman nominated for president by a major U.S. party |
| 2026 | Kamala Harris | First Black and Asian American woman nominated by a major U.S. party |
Why This History Matters
The history of women who ran for president is not simply a list of campaigns. It records changes in voting rights, party access, public expectations, and the meaning of political representation. From candidates who ran before women could vote nationwide to major-party nominees in the 21st century, each campaign tested the boundaries of political participation.
For readers researching a particular candidate, useful primary sources include party convention records, election archives, campaign documents, and oral histories. The Library of Congress and the National Archives provide historical materials on elections and political movements. Such records help distinguish a candidate’s formal status, ballot access, vote totals, and broader influence—details that are often compressed into a single headline.