A record 159 women will serve in the next Congress and almost all of them are Democrats. The new record is seven more women than currently serve in the House and Senate, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and CNN election projections. Next year’s freshmen include the first female Native American senator, Colorado’s first Black female representative, and the first Hispanic representative from Nebraska.
Women’s representation will hit 30% when the 120th Congress convenes in January. But it will still be about 100 seats shy of gender parity and the gains are not across the board. They are among Democratic women, mostly in the House, where women are breaking a new record. The number of women in the Senate will decrease.
For Republicans in both chambers, the new Congress will bring what one strategist called a “crisis-level decline.”
The Numbers
In the House, Democratic women will far surpass the current 95 who are serving. But the number of Republican women in the chamber is falling, as is the case in the Senate.
At least 115 Democratic women are headed to the House compared to just 19 Republicans.
The partisan disparity is consistent with historical trends. The Democratic Party has often placed a higher priority on recruiting and funding female candidates, largely through EMILY’s List. After Trump’s 2016 victory, a surge of female candidates ran in 2018, resulting in 36 non-incumbent women elected to the House, breaking the previous record of 24 in 1992. All but one of those women were Democrats.
The GOP briefly responded. In 2020, Republicans elected a record number of women. But that momentum is gone.
“We are once again facing a crisis-level decline in Republican women in Congress,” Danielle Barrow, executive director of Winning for Women Action Fund, said in a statement. “It is time for party leaders to treat this as a permanent strategy, not a crisis response.”
The Veterans
Among the record number of women are at least 11 female veterans, the most in US history, including newly elected Democrats Cait Conley and JoAnna Mendoza, who won their races in New York and Arizona.
Democratic Rep.-elect Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot who flipped New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, said her experience as a mom raising daughters helped her understand voters’ cost-of-living concerns.
Michele Swers, professor of Congress, women and politics at Georgetown University, said Democratic women veteran candidates have found success in part because they defy the assumptions that both Democrats and women are soft on national security.
“If you can recruit women who have national security experience, you get the benefits of their moral authority on national security and their moral authority as women and caregivers in the public mind,” she said.
The Bottom Line
A record 159 women will serve in the next Congress, but the gains are almost entirely Democratic. At least 115 Democratic women are headed to the House compared to just 19 Republicans. The number of women in the Senate will decrease. Republican strategists are calling it a “crisis-level decline” and warning that party leaders need to treat female candidate recruitment as a permanent strategy, not a crisis response.
My Opinion
Democrats have found a new way to win elections by recruiting women. This is a victory for Democratic women, and a damning indictment of the Republican Party, which has spent years pretending to champion women while systematically failing to recruit, fund, and support them.
At least 115 Democratic women are headed to the House, but on the Republican side, there are only 19. Nineteen women. Their own strategists are calling it a “crisis-level decline.” Danielle Barrow is begging party leaders to treat this as a permanent strategy, not a crisis response. She is right. But she is also too late. The Republican Party has spent a decade alienating women with its policies, its rhetoric, and its candidates. And now it is paying the price.
The Republican Party has a woman problem. And the woman problem is the Republican Party.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is reaping the rewards. EMILY’s List has been recruiting and funding female candidates since 1985. They built a pipeline, invested in infrastructure and played the long game. And now this long game is paying off.
But let’s not let the Democrats off the hook either. Thirty percent is not parity. It is still 100 seats short. Women are still underrepresented in the Senate. The women who are winning are overwhelmingly Democratic, which means the Republican Party’s failure is also a failure of American democracy. When one party refuses to recruit women, it denies millions of voters the representation they deserve.
