The Democrats picked up 30 House seats in 2006, and in 27 of the 30 seats it was a male Democrat that won (the only females being Gabrielle Giffords in AZ-08, Nancy Boyda in KS-02 and Carol Shea-Porter in NH-01). Of course, one could argue that that's partly because more male Democrats than female Democrats run for Congress, which is a fair point. But the Democrats in successful races are only part of the story. If we look at the next 30 best takeover opportunities (on paper) for the Democrats---the seats that the Democrats could have picked up but didn't---we see that there were 19 female Democrats and only 11 male Democrats running for those seats! This includes races that, had one been told that the Democrats would pick up 30 seats, one would have never imagined could possibly be won by the Republicans. Let's start off with the most obvious missed opportunities for the Democrats. I think there is a consensus that, based on the GOP candidate and the district demographics, the 10 biggest missed opportunities for House Democrats in 2006 were (in no particular order) (1) the IL-06 open seat (Hyde's old seat), (2) Gerlach's PA-06, (3) Shays's CT-04 (the only House seat in New England still held by the GOP), (4) Pryce's OH-15, (5) Wilson's NM-01, (6) Reichert's WA-08, (7) the MN-06 open seat (Mark Kennedy's old seat), (8) Porter's NV-03 seat, (9) the FL-13 open seat (Harris's old seat) and (10) Drake's VA-02. Well, in those 10 biggest missed opportunities, the Democrats ran a female candidate in the first 9 (Tammy Duckworth, Lois Murphy, Diane Farrell, Mary Jo Kilroy, Patricia Madrid, Darcy Burner, Patty Wetterling, Tessa Hafen and Christine Jennings, respectively), and a male only in the VA-02 (Phil Kellam).
And if we see the next 20 biggest missed opportunities for Democrats, while the group now has 10 female candidates and 10 male candidates, it is clear that the male candidates came closer to winning despite running in far more Republican districts than their female counterparts. Male Democrats came close to winning in the overwhelmingly Republican CA-04 (Charlie Brown), KY-04 (Ken Lucas), ID-01 (Larry Grant) and Wyoming-At Large (Gary Trauner), as well as in several districts with strong Republican leans (Jack Davis in NY-26, Eric Massa in NY-29 and Larry Kissell in NC-08); the only female Democrats who came close to winning in such difficult districts were Victoria Wulsin in OH-02 and Angie Paccione in CO-04.
In conclusion, Republicans seem to do better in House races when running against female Democrats, especially in GOP-leaning districts. My hypothesis is that male Republican voters are less likely to vote for a female Democrat than for a male Democrat because it is harder for the female Democrat politician to project a "conservative" or "moderate" image. While the MN-03 that Jim Ramstad is vacating has only a slight GOP lean in presidential elections, it is historically Republican and normally favors the Republican House nominee. The fact that Democrats are poised to nominate a female candidate, Terri Bonoff, bodes well for GOP hopes of holding on to the seat. Remember, while Minnesota's two most highly publicized 2006 Democrat House challengers---Patty Wetterling and Coleen Rowley---were losing by wide margins, the little-known male Democrat in the MN-01, Tim Walz, pulled off the upset.
And Dr. Victoria "Vic" Wulsin was running against Congresswoman Jean Schmidt in OH-02.
This time around both Wulsin and Shcmidt have male primary opponents before a potential rematch. Schmidt's challenger is outraising her and I think Wulsin's is too.
I just realized that I messed up, and that 4, not 3, Democrat women took over GOP House seats in 2006; I had forgotten about Kirsten Gillibrand in the NY-20. Still, 26 out of 30 takeovers were by male Democrats.