Record number of women heading to Congress

Washington Post: Record number of women heading to Congress

By Mary Jordan

More than 100 women were projected to win seats in the House of Representatives, easily shattering the record. Overwhelmingly they were Democrats who helped the party take control of the chamber.

Women have never held more than 84 of the 435 seats in the House. With votes still being counted Thursday, 100 women had been officially declared winners.

“Women made history in a number of ways and were a significant force in flipping many districts from red to blue,” said Kelly Dittmar, a political scientist at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Many of the winning candidates campaigned on the need for better health care for all Americans. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds — from military veterans to teachers — and many had never run for office before.

Women also made inroads in gubernatorial races, which are particularly important because of upcoming redistricting battles.

In Kansas and Michigan, women flipped states that had been under Republican control.

Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly defeated Republican Kris Kobach, with whom Trump had campaigned in Kansas last month.

Gretchen Whitmer, a former state senator in Michigan, won her race after campaigning on a promise to fix the state’s roads and aging drinking-water infrastructure, and to expand Medicaid to lower-income adults.

Notably, Michigan Democrats selected a woman for every statewide office on Tuesday’s ballot: governor, U.S. senator, attorney general and secretary of state.

Georgia had the highest-profile governor’s race. Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who won the backing of former president Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, was aiming to be the first black female governor in the nation.

But she was trailing early Wednesday behind Trump-backed candidate Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, who cast himself as a “politically incorrect” hard-line immigration candidate like the president.

The women who ran this year were remarkably diverse — black, Latina, Native American. But noticeably absent on ballots were more Republican women.

“We need to go out and get our women engaged,” said Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of Republican Main Street Partnership. “We are being dwarfed by the Democrats. This is something we are going to focus on.”

Chamberlain said she hears voters in key districts talking mostly about an affordable health-care system that serves everyone, even those with preexisting medical conditions. That has been the loud and clear message of many Democratic candidates.

The new faces coming to Congress include:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, 29, a Latina who defeated incumbent Joseph Crowley in a decisive primary, is heading to the House.

In Virginia, Democrat Jennifer Wexton unseated Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock.

Deb Haaland, a Democrat in New Mexico, will be one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress.

In Florida, Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, an immigrant from Ecuador and an educator, focused her campaign largely on health care and toppled Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo. Curbelo had voted to repeal Obamacare in a district that contains thousands of people who benefited from it.

Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, born in Detroit to Palestinian parents, and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, who arrived in the United States from Somalia at age 14, won their House races, becoming the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

At a rally in Minneapolis on Monday night, Omar was cheered wildly, and danced as she was introduced.

“The opportunity to be here, to participate in this democracy, has made me want to dance, and door-knock and talk to people and invite people to the joy of what it means to participate in a democracy,” she told a crowd of volunteers.

“What I want to do for you is have my energy be contagious,” she said.

Some GOP women won key races.

Marsha Blackburn, who called herself a “hardcore, card-carrying conservative,” became the first female senator ever elected from Tennessee. Backed by Trump in the Republican state, she defeated Phil Bredesen, a centrist Democrat and former governor.

Democrats did not fare well as well in the Senate as they did in the House.

In Missouri, one of the few Democratic women in the Senate, Claire McCaskill, was defeated by Republican state attorney general Josh Hawley.

While men with military backgrounds have long been recruited to run for office, this year many of the candidates who drew the most attention were female veterans.

Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran and first-time Democratic candidate, won in Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District race, replacing retiring Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican.

Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and Democrat, won in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. She said she was motivated to run for office by what she calls a “lack of respect” for women by the Trump administration and was astounded to see an all-male Senate panel debating whether to repeal the Affordable Care Act last year.

But one of the most well known, Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot, lost a close race to Republican incumbent Andy Barr. Trump had won that district handily.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA operative, pulled off a big win in Virginia by unseating Republican Rep. Dave Brat, a rising star among conservatives.

Four years ago, Brat defeated Eric Cantor, then the House majority leader, in a stunning upset. Brat was part of the House Freedom Caucus.

In Arizona, a close race between Republican Martha McSally, a former Air Force fighter pilot, and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who is openly bisexual, means that Arizona will have its first female senator no matter who wins.

They are vying for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.

A record 33 of the Tuesday’s matchups for Congress were women vs. women. In Florida, Democrat Donna Shalala, the former president of the University of Miami and Cabinet member during the Clinton administration, defeated Republican Maria Elvira Salazar, a broadcast journalist of Cuban heritage, according to early results.

“Are women fired up? That is putting it mildly,” said Jen Cox, a founder of PaveItBlue. Her group, one of many formed since Trump’s election and after the Women’s March, connected thousands of women in the Atlanta area interested in becoming more politically active.

“It’s historic. It’s our turn in having a say in changing the face of politics,” Cox said.

Dittmar, from Rutgers, said the female candidates in 2018 did not fit any particular mold. She noted that even with the gains, women were still underrepresented.

The United States trails behind many other countries, from Mexico to Britain, in the legislative representation of women.

Still, Dittmar said Tuesday’s election “was a significant jump, it wasn’t incremental.”

Along with better health care, other key issues that helped propel women were their pledges to better protect the environment and to help stop the rising incivility and divisions among Americans.

“This is only just the beginning,” said Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List, an influential Democratic-leaning group that supports women in politics. “I think we are going to see a historical turnout of women in 2020 — this is not dying down.”