A record number of women are headed to Congress in January, but only a fraction will represent the GOP.
When the 116th Congress convenes in early January, at least 125 women are set to serve — a jump from the current 112 seats held by female lawmakers. With several races still uncalled, Capitol Hill will include at least 102 women in the House and 23 in the Senate.
Most of the gains were on the Democratic side. The GOP lost at least 10 House seats, down to 13, while holding even in the Senate. Appointed Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., is favored to win a scheduled Nov. 27 runoff against a male opponent. Democrats, by comparison, netted an additional 27 female House seats from the last Congress while losing only one seat in the Senate.
In the 115th Congress, less than 30 percent of women in the House were Republican, but after the midterm elections last Tuesday, GOP women will only make up 13 percent.
Out of the 35 newly-elected women to Congress, only one is a Republican, Rep.-elect Carol Miller of West Virginia.
On the Democratic side, female Democratic representatives will make up a significant portion of new lawmakers. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York will be the youngest woman to serve in Congress, at age 29. Deb Haaland of New Mexico is among the first two Native American women to serve in Congress, and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar are the first Muslim women elected to the House. Iowa elected its first women to serve in the House, Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne.
Female candidates also had a good night outside of Washington. Michigan elected a female Democrat to every statewide office, including governor, senator, attorney general, and secretary of state.
Republicans did elect their first female senator from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn.
