Record number of women will be elected to House

Enough female candidates are projected to win their House races on Tuesday night to set a record for the number of women serving in the House.

Women currently hold 84 out of 435 House seats, the highest number in US history.

As of midnight Tuesday night, at least 80 women had been elected, and several more were projected to win races without any male major-party candidates.

This election cycle saw a wave of women running for office, many of them first-time candidates. More women won major party primaries than any other year. 

{mosads}More than twice as many women ran for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections than in 2016, the vast majority of whom ran as Democrats.

Many progressive female candidates said they felt motivated to run for office in response to President Trump’s election and the “Me Too” movement. The Women’s March on Washington the day after Trump’s inauguration also marked the beginning of a resurgence of women’s rights activism that inspired some candidates.

A number of other female “firsts” were elected Tuesday, including the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and the first two Native American women elected to Congress, one of whom is also the first LGBTQ person to represent Kansas.

The US territory of Guam also elected its first-ever female governor.

Democrats picked up at least the necessary 23 seats to gain control of the lower chamber, while Republicans are projected to keep control of the Senate.