Record number of women to serve in Congress following 2018 midterm elections
A record number of women will serve in the House of Representatives as a result of yesterday's midterm election contests, with several making history due to their race, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.
Some 95 women have won, or are projected to win, their House races as of Wednesday, which is up from the current 84 women in the House. In addition, at least 13 women won Senate seats. That's on top of the 10 female senators who were not up for re-election this year.
Among the notable names on the new House roster: Deb Haaland of New Mexico and Sharice Davids of Kansas are the first Native American women elected to Congress, and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar will be the first Muslim women in the House. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Abby Finkenauer of Iowa, both 29, will become the youngest women to serve in the House.
Other firsts: In Texas, Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia became the first Latinas to represent the state in Congress. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts also became the first women of color elected to represent their respective states.
According to the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics, the next Congress will feature a record of women of color, and a record number of non-incumbent women.
In the Senate, Kyrsten Sinema was elected as Arizona's first female senator. She is also the first openly bisexual person to serve in the Senate.
Most of the women in Congress will be Democrats. But Republican women registered their own firsts as well. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee will be first woman representing that state. And if she wins a run-off, Cindy Hyde-Smith will remain the first woman to represent Mississippi. She was appointed to replace Thad Cochran earlier this year.