List of female United States presidential and vice presidential candidates

While many historians and authors agree that Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president, some have questioned the legality of her run. They disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because she was younger than the constitutionally mandated age of 35, but election coverage by contemporary newspapers does not suggest age was a significant issue. The presidential inauguration was in March 1873, while Woodhull didn't turn 35 until September of that year.^[1]

The first woman to receive votes at a national political convention for vice president was Quaker activist and orator Lucretia Coffin Mott who received 6% of the votes in the first ballot for the vice presidential nomination at the 1848 convention of the Liberty Party.

Margaret Chase Smith announced her candidacy for the Republican Party nomination in 1964, becoming the first female candidate for a major party's nomination. She qualified for the ballot in six state primaries, and came in second in the Illinois primary, receiving 25% of the vote. She became the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the presidency at a major political party's convention.^[2]

Charlene Mitchell was the first African American woman to run for president, and the first to receive valid votes in a general election, in 1968. She qualified for the ballot in two states as the nominee of the Communist Party USA, winning 1,075 votes.^[3]

In 1972, Shirley Chisholm became the first black candidate for a major party's presidential nomination, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's nomination.^[4] During this primary, Chisholm won the New Jersey primary, becoming the first woman or African American to win a primary in any state. This would not be repeated by another woman for 36 years, in 2008.

Also in 1972, Tonie Nathan, the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate, became the first woman to receive an electoral vote, via faithless elector Roger MacBride.^[5] In the 1988 presidential election, Lenora Fulani became the first woman to achieve ballot access in all fifty states.^[6] Fulani was also the first African American to do so. Three of her running mates, Joyce Dattner, Mamie Moore (also African American), and Wynonia Burke, also achieved ballot access separately in varying numbers out of the 50 states.

The first woman to become a major party nominee for vice president was Democrat Geraldine Ferraro, in 1984. The second, and first Republican, was Sarah Palin, in 2008.

In the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York became the first woman to be listed as a presidential candidate in every primary and caucus nationwide.^[7] Despite losing the nomination in a close race against Barack Obama, Clinton won more votes in 2008 than any female primary candidate in American history.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major party after winning a majority of pledged delegates in the 2016 Democratic Party primaries, and was formally nominated at the Democratic National Convention on July 26, 2016.^[8][9] As a major party nominee, Clinton became the first woman to participate in a presidential debate, and later the first to carry a state in a general election. Despite losing the election, Clinton became the first woman to win the popular vote, receiving nearly 66 million votes to Donald Trump's 63 million.^[10]

The Green Party has run a female candidate three times, Cynthia McKinney in 2008 and Jill Stein in 2012 and 2016. Stein is currently the female candidate with the third-most votes in a general election, having received nearly 1.5 million votes in 2016.

Prior to the 2020 United States presidential election cycle, only five women throughout history had made it to a major party's primary debate stage: Democrats Shirley Chisholm (in 1972), Carol Moseley Braun (in 2004), and Hillary Clinton (in 2008 and 2016), and Republicans Michele Bachmann (in 2012) and Carly Fiorina (in 2016); there had never been more than one woman on the debate stage at one time, and there had never been more than two women running per party at one time.^[11] In the 2020 presidential election cycle, a record-breaking six women ran for president in the Democratic Party: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senator Kamala Harris of California, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, and author Marianne Williamson. The initial night of the first Democratic primary debate, which took place on June 26–27, 2019, marked a major milestone, as it featured three women: Warren, Klobuchar, and Gabbard; Harris, Gillibrand, and Williamson participated on the second night.^[12]

Jo Jorgensen was the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate for the 2020 election, and is the first woman to be nominated by that party. Jorgensen is currently the female candidate with the second-most votes in a general election, having received nearly 1.9 million votes in 2020.

Kamala Harris is the vice president of the United States. She is the United States' first female vice president and the highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history. She is also the first Asian-American and the first African-American vice president.

On November 19, 2021, Harris became the first woman to serve as acting president of the United States, when President Joe Biden invoked the third section of the Twenty-fifth Amendment before undergoing a routine medical procedure. Harris was acting president from 10:10 a.m. until 11:35 a.m.^[13]

On March 3, 2024, Nikki Haley became the first woman to win a Republican primary in American history.^[14]

Candidates who received electoral college votes

General election candidates by popular vote

This list, sorted by the number of votes received, includes female candidates who have competed for President of the United States in a general election and received over 40,000 votes.

† Popular vote winner

Year	Picture	Name	Party	Votes	Elected president
2016		Hillary Clinton	Democratic Party	65,853,516†	Donald Trump
2020		Jo Jorgensen	Libertarian Party	1,865,724[16]	Joe Biden
2016		Jill Stein	Green Party	1,457,218	Donald Trump
2012				468,907[17]	Barack Obama
1988		Lenora Fulani	New Alliance Party	217,219[18]	George H. W. Bush
1992				73,714[19]	Bill Clinton
2008		Cynthia McKinney	Green Party	161,797[20]	Barack Obama
1972		Linda Jenness	Socialist Workers Party	83,380[21]	Richard Nixon
1984		Sonia Johnson	Citizens Party	72,200[22]	Ronald Reagan
2012		Roseanne Barr	Peace and Freedom Party	67,326[23]	Barack Obama
1976		Margaret Wright	People's Party	49,024[24]	Jimmy Carter
1940		Gracie Allen	Surprise Party	42,000[25]	Franklin D. Roosevelt

Primary election candidates

This list, sorted by the number of votes received, includes female candidates who have sought their party's presidential nomination in at least one primary or caucus and received over 5,000 votes.
  Party nominee

Year	Picture	Name	Party	Votes	Contests won	Party nominee
2008		Hillary Clinton	Democratic Party	17,857,501[26]	23	Barack Obama
2016		Hillary Clinton	Democratic Party	16,914,722[27]	34	Hillary Clinton
2024		Nikki Haley	Republican Party	4,356,256	2	Donald Trump
2020		Elizabeth Warren	Democratic Party	2,780,679[28]	0	Joe Biden
2020		Amy Klobuchar	Democratic Party	524,375[28]	0	Joe Biden
2020		Marianne Williamson	Democratic Party	22,334[28]	0	Joe Biden
2024				443,784	0	Joe Biden
1972		Shirley Chisholm	Democratic Party	430,703[29]	1[30]	George McGovern
2020		Tulsi Gabbard	Democratic Party	261,253[28]	0	Joe Biden
1964		Margaret Chase Smith	Republican Party	227,007[31]	0	Barry Goldwater
2004		Carol Moseley Braun	Democratic Party	103,189[32]	0	John Kerry
1996		Elvena Lloyd-Duffie	Democratic Party	91,929[33]	0	Bill Clinton
2012		Michele Bachmann	Republican Party	41,170[34]	0	Mitt Romney
2016		Carly Fiorina	Republican Party	40,666[34]	0	Donald Trump
1996		Heather Anne Harder	Democratic Party	29,156[35][36][37]	0	Bill Clinton
1972		Patsy Mink	Democratic Party	8,286[38]	0	George McGovern
1964		Fay Carpenter Swain	Democratic Party	7,140[39]	0	Lyndon B. Johnson
2024		Rachel Swift	Republican Party	6,895	0	Donald Trump
2020		Jo Jorgensen	Libertarian Party	5,123[40]	2	Jo Jorgensen

All candidates

Party nominees

Not nominated by party

Candidates who failed to receive their parties' nomination.

Candidates who received electoral college votes

  Elected vice president

By popular vote

This list includes female candidates who have run for Vice President of the United States and received over 100,000 votes. Note that the vote for vice president is not separate in the United States and is identical to that for the presidential nominees.^[85]
  Elected vice president

No.	Year	Picture	Name	Party	Running mate	Votes	Elected vice president
1	2020		Kamala Harris	Democratic Party	Joe Biden	81,268,924[16]	Kamala Harris
2	2008		Sarah Palin	Republican Party	John McCain	59,948,323	Joe Biden
3	1984		Geraldine Ferraro	Democratic Party	Walter Mondale	37,577,352	George H. W. Bush
4	2000		Winona LaDuke	Green Party	Ralph Nader	2,883,105	Dick Cheney
5	1996					596,780	Al Gore
6	2016		Mindy Finn	Independent	Evan McMullin	731,991	Mike Pence
7	1996		Jo Jorgensen	Libertarian Party	Harry Browne	485,798	Al Gore
8	2012		Cheri Honkala	Green Party	Jill Stein	469,628	Joe Biden
9	2000		Ezola Foster	Reform Party	Pat Buchanan	449,225	Dick Cheney
10	2020		Angela Walker	Green Party	Howie Hawkins	404,021	Kamala Harris
11	1992		Nancy Lord	Libertarian Party	Andre Marrou	290,087	Al Gore
12	1980		LaDonna Harris	Citizens Party	Barry Commoner	233,052	George H. W. Bush
13	2008		Rosa Clemente	Green Party	Cynthia McKinney	161,797	Joe Biden
14	1988		Joyce Dattner	New Alliance Party	Lenora Fulani	143,858	Dan Quayle
15	1952		Charlotta Bass	Progressive Party	Vincent Hallinan	140,023	Richard Nixon
16	2004		Pat LaMarche	Green Party	David Cobb	119,859	Dick Cheney

All candidates

Party nominees

Not nominated by party

• List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government
• List of female governors in the United States
• Edith Wilson (sometimes nicknamed "the first female president of the United States")
• Female president of the United States in popular culture

• Freeman, Jo, The Women Who Ran for President (2007)
• Maurer, Elizabeth. "First but Not the Last: Women who Ran for President". National Women's History Museum. 2016.