Record number of women elected to the House
When all votes are counted, CBS News estimates a record number of women will be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives — more than 100.
As of 8:32 p.m. on Nov. 11, women won 99 seats in the House based on CBS News projections, with that number expected to grow, according to CBS News elections expert Jennifer De Pinto. The vast majority of those women winners are Democrats. Of the 99 women who have won, 86 of them are Democrats and only 13 are Republicans. There are 435 total seats in the House.
In the Senate, CBS News estimates the composition of the new Senate will at least match the current Senate, which has 23 women. That includes the race in Arizona, where both candidates for U.S. Senate, Martha McSally and Kirsten Sinema, are women. The number of women in the Senate could potentially increase if Cindy Hyde Smith in Mississippi wins her run-off election for U.S. Senate come Nov. 27. There were firsts for women in the Senate, too. Tennessee elected its first female senator in choosing Republican Marsha Blackburn, and Arizona is set to do the same, regardless of who wins.
Women have emerged victorious so far in nine races for governor. One additional race remains undecided in Georgia, where Democrat Stacy Abrams still hopes to best Republican Brian Kemp.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi emphasized in an interview with CBS News "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan that having so many women in Congress is a "major accomplishment" for Congress and the American people. There were just 12 women in Congress when Pelosi arrived in Congress three decades ago.
"I hope we will have a woman president very soon, but that's not the fact that we almost had one would have been motivation for me to say, 'There's a woman at the table.' It's very important," Pelosi said. "You cannot have the four leaders of Congress, the president of the United States, these five people, and not have the voice of women. Especially since women were the majority of the voters, the workers in campaigns, and now part of this glorious victory."
"But these women bring each their individual excellence to the Congress, and we're very proud of it. When I came to Congress, there were 12 Democratic women. I said, 'We have to change this.; Now we'll have close to 90. And that's a major accomplishment for the American people, but also for the Congress.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to Congress last week. The 29-year-old New Yorker and rising star in the Democratic party told supporters last week it is a "privilege and an honor to say that we have also elected the youngest woman in American history to serve in Congress."
