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With 3 months to go until the midterms, women are kinda crushing it

Despite the surge in female candidates, women still make up less than a quarter of all congressional candidates

On Tuesday, 62 women will face off in primaries for federal and statewide executive positions across Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington. The winners will join 244 other women who have dominated their races in the so-called “Year of the Woman 2.0,” where more than 700 women are running for higher office.

Despite the surge in female candidates, women still make up less than a quarter of all congressional candidates. For that to change, it isn’t enough for more women to run — they also need to win. And if the primaries are any indication of how women will fare in November, things are looking promising.

Almost two-thirds of women running for higher office this year have already faced their first contests — and they’ve been successful in just about half of their races. That success has primarily been driven by Democrat women, who make up almost 70 percent of female candidates and have won over half their primaries. Republican women account for just 30 percent of candidates, and have won 44 percent of their primary races.

On both sides of the aisle, women are seeing the most success in House races. For now, Senate and gubernatorial race wins have proved a bit more elusive.

Of course, all of this is just the primaries — the real test for female candidates will come on November 6th.

This segment originally aired August 6, 2018 on VICE News on HBO.