Happy New Year! With electoral politics briefly paused for the holiday season, Decision Desk HQ decided to do something a little different for this podcast episode. Chief Elections Analyst Geoffrey Skelley took a spin in the time machine, going back more than 100 years to look at the electoral career of Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman ever elected to Congress.
Rankin initially made her name as a women’s suffrage advocate before winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916 — four years before the 19th Amendment fully gave women the vote across the entire country. Having made history as the first woman elected to Congress, she then became famous (or infamous) for voting against American entry into both world wars. Rankin served only two terms separated by more than two decades, but happened to be in the House each time the nation declared war in the 20th century.
Yet a major reason why Rankin had such a long hiatus was due to mid-decade redistricting, a subject very much on our minds in the 2026 election cycle. Rankin had been elected as one of Montana’s two at-large representatives, but after the 1916 election the state legislature split the state into two single-member districts. She had to decide what electoral path to trod in 1918, eventually mounting a failed bid for U.S. Senate. It would be another 22 years before she won a place back in Congress in 1940. We explore Rankin’s fascinating electoral trajectory in this special holiday episode of the DDHQ podcast.
