GOP Women Elected To U.S. Congress Hits Record Number

ACROSS AMERICA — After Democratic women shattered records in the 2018 midterm elections, 2020 is the year Republican women showed up to demand a seat at the table.

As mail-in ballots continue to be counted across the country, Republicans made good on their promise to narrow their enormous gender gap in Congress. A record 31 Republican women have been elected to seats in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives, surpassing the previous record of 30 set in 2006.

Before Election Day, 22 Republican women were serving in both chambers.

Republicans also made progress recruiting and nominating more diverse candidates with less-traditional backgrounds, a similar strategy employed by Democrats in 2018.

Several incumbent Republicans fought hard to protect their seats in the Senate. Joni Ernst prevailed in Iowa, Kelly Loeffler advanced to a runoff in Georgia, and Susan Collins won a decisive victory in her re-election race in Maine.

Republican newcomers also fared well. Cynthia Lummis, a former House lawmaker, became the first Republican woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate, replacing the retiring incumbent, Sen. Michael Enzi. Ashley Hinson, a former state legislator and television reporter, ousted Rep. Abby Finkenauer of Iowa; and Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from the Citadel, defeated Rep. Joe Cunningham of South Carolina.

By Wednesday afternoon, Democrats had defeated only one Republican woman in the Senate — Martha McSally of Arizona, who is expected to lose her election bid to Democrat Mark Kelly.

“In many ways, this cycle for the Republican women is a very simple story,” Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, told The New York Times. “You can’t see numeric gains in officeholders unless you have increases in the number of candidates.”

A record number of women ran for Congress this year, building off the success they had in 2018. According to data tracked by CAWP, 298 women were nominated to run for a seat in the U.S. House, compared with the record of 234 set two years ago. For the Senate, a record 60 women filed to run, though only 20 secured nominations, three short of the previous record set in 2018.

As of Thursday morning, 127 women had won seats in both chambers, according to vote totals tracked by CAWP. The number ties the previous record set in the 2018 midterm elections.

Democratic women fell short of several election records set two years ago.

While a record number of Democratic women were nominated to run for House seats this year — 204 nominees compared with 182 in 2018 — only 12 women were nominated for Senate seats compared with 15 two years ago.

Also this year, 96 Democratic women have been elected, according to the latest available results on Thursday. The previous record of 106 was set in 2019.

Women of color in particular also had their moment this election: On Tuesday, the names of at least 115 women of color — including a historic 61 Black women, 32 Latinas, and six Native Americans — appeared on ballots across the country.

Former journalist Maria Elvira Salazar unseated Democrat Donna Shalala in Florida’s 27th District. Yvette Herrell, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, beat incumbent Xochitl Torres Small in New Mexico’s 2nd District to become the first Native American Republican woman in Congress.

In fact, New Mexico became the first state in history to elect all women of color to the U.S. House of Representatives. Early Wednesday, the state confirmed victories not only for Herrell, but also for incumbent Rep. Deb Haaland and Teresa Leger Fernandez.

In Texas’ 24th Congressional District, election officials are still counting mail-in ballots, but the race isn’t over for Democrat Candace Valenzuela, who less than two years ago was relatively unknown on the national political stage.

As of Thursday morning, Republican Beth Van Duyne had declared victory in the race, but Valenzuela had not conceded defeat. Valenzuela is currently trailing Van Duyne by fewer than 5,000 votes with 88 percent of votes reported.

If Valenzuela wins, she would become the first Afro-Latina elected to Congress.

In yet another first, Delaware’s Sarah McBride on Tuesday became the first openly trans person elected to a state Senate seat. The win also makes her the highest-ranking openly trans elected official in American history.⁠

McBride, 30, has built her career around securing LGBTQ equality. While McBride has been the target of transphobic harassment and anti-trans Facebook posts by her opponent, she told Vox that the vast majority of voters never bring up her identity.

“Voters in this district are fair-minded, and they’re judging candidates based on their ideas and not their identities,” she said. “They’re looking for candidates with the imagination and the energy and the experience to meet this moment with meaningful results.”⁠

Democratic women still outpace Republicans when it comes to diversity. Prior to the 2020 election, 48 women of color were serving in Congress. Only one is Republican.

Beyond the obvious issue of equal representation, there are many reasons why it's important to elect more women into office, Walsh with the Center for American Women and Politics, told the Courier Newsroom.

For example, they are more likely to prioritize issues that affect women, families and children, Walsh said. They also tend to be more passionate about issues such as health care, child care and education, regardless of party affiliation.

President Donald Trump, the #MeToo movement, and a politically polarized climate remain key reasons many women decide to run for office, Walsh said.

"They thought someone who would talk about women the way Donald Trump talked about women in that 'Access Hollywood' tape could not get elected president of the United States," she said. "And then when he did, and when he beat a highly qualified woman, women had to reassess things that they thought were settled business."

Still, women make up more than half the U.S. population and, despite progress made this year, the country has a long way to go to reach equality in politics.

Prior to this year’s election, women comprised the following, according to CAWP:

• 26 percent of the U.S. Senate
• 23 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives
• 30 percent of statewide elected executives
• 29 percent of state legislative seats
• 23 percent of mayors in cities with populations over 30,000
• 0 percent of presidents of the United States.

Women of color, Republican women, young women and low-income women are among groups that are especially underrepresented. Democratic women fare better, Walsh said, simply because more are running.

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