Today is the day we redefine “electability.” We’re thrilled to share that the Reflective Democracy Campaign has just released its latest dataset and the results speak for themselves—white men’s electability advantage is a myth.

When reflective candidates are on the ballot, they win as often as white men.

We’ve already been covered in the New York Times, “Gender Gap Closes When Everyone’s on the Ballot, Study Shows.”

This is a huge deal. With “electability” dominating the conversation leading up to 2020, the Campaign ran the data on thousands of candidates and elected officials to see who is winning elections today and found a historic upheaval in the demographics of American political power.

Read all about it in our latest report, “The Electability Myth: The Shifting Demographics of Political Power in America,” which is now available on wholeads.us.

Highlights:

Redefining “Electability”:

• Comparing 2018 candidates to 2018 election winners, women of color, white women, men of color, and white men all won seats in close proportion to their share of candidates. White men were the only demographic group with fewer winners than candidates.

Women of color are driving progress:

• Women of color held 6% of congressional seats in 2015, and hold 9% today, representing a 40% change over four years. White women’s rate of change is 15% for the same time frame.
• In state legislature races, primary voters put 54% more women of color on the 2018 ballot than in 2016, while adding 13% more white women.

In 200 of the biggest cities, women are making mayoral inroads:

• From coast to coast, 40 of America’s 200 most populous cities are led by women.
• Of the 40 big city women mayors currently in office, 34 replaced male mayors.

While we still have a long way to go, we’re excited that not only are more women and people of color running for elected office, but they are winning too.