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Women Presidential Candidates - United States

Women Who Have Run for United States President

By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com

Hillary Clinton in her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination for US President came the closest so far that any woman has come to winning the nomination of a major political party in the United States. But Clinton is not the first woman to run for United States President, and not even the first to run for a major party's nomination. Here's a list of the female presidential candidates I've been able to discover, arranged chronologically by each woman's first campaign for the office.

Victoria Woodhull

Equal Rights Party: 1872, 1892

Belva Lockwood

National Equal Rights Party: 1884, 1888

Grace Allen

Surprise Party: 1940

Margaret Chase Smith

Republican Party: 1964

Charlene Mitchell

Communist Party: 1968

Shirley Chisholm

Democratic Party: 1972

Patsy Takemoto Mink

Democratic Party: 1972

Bella Abzug

Democratic Party: 1972

Linda Osteen Jenness

Socialist Workers Party: 1972

Evelyn Reed

Socialist Workers Party: 1972

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