Woman-versus-woman races have grown increasingly common in congressional elections, but it is still rare in a highly competitive open seat for the U.S. House of Representatives that both parties would have female nominees. So when both the Democrats and the Republicans nominated women to run for the House from Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional district, it was not because the party organizations intentionally tapped women for the race. To get their party nominations, both Democrat Allyson Schwartz and Republican Melissa Brown had to defeat other would-be nominees in primary races. Schwartz beat her primary opponent 52 percent to 48 percent. Brown reached the general election by earning 39 percent of the primary vote, while her opponents obtained 35 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Both women saw their political parties' national campaign committees pour money into the race in the general election, but not before they had fended off tough intra-party opposition.

Schwartz, a state senator, had prominent supporters in the primary. The chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, along with the Philadelphia controller, a major political figure in the area, endorsed Schwartz when she announced her candidacy. She also received the support of EMILY's List, a Democratic group that recruits and trains pro-choice women candidates and provides resources to their campaigns. Donations from EMILY's List members helped Schwartz lead all primary candidates in fundraising by October 2003, a year before the general election.