A Record Number Of Women Will Serve In Congress (With Potentially More To Come)

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Note: NPR will be updating these numbers as more results come in.

Updated at 10:44 a.m. ET Thursday

After Tuesday's elections, a record number of women will serve in Congress come January 2019.

With results still coming in, 98 women have won their House races as of early Wednesday morning, up from the current 84. In addition, at least 13 women won Senate seats. That's in addition to the 10 female senators who were not up for re-election this year.

That means at least 121 women will serve in the 116th Congress, up from the current 107. It will bring the share of Congress members who are women up from the current 20 percent to nearly 23 percent — a new high, but far from parity.

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These new records represent the culmination of a record-setting year for female candidates. In elections for Congress, governorships and state legislatures alike, the number of women who ran outstripped previous years, as did the number of women nominated.

Many first-time candidates this year were inspired to run for office, at least in part, by the 2016 presidential election — both the fact that the first female major-party nominee ever lost, and that Donald Trump, who is very unpopular among women (particularly Democratic women), won.

And the women elected this year are overwhelmingly Democratic. Thus far, 85 of the 98 women elected to the House this year, as well as 10 of the 13 elected to the Senate, are Democrats. (One still-undecided Senate seat, in Arizona, will go to a woman no matter what, as both major-party candidates are women. That brings the total of women assured to be elected to the Senate this year to 14.)

In fact, the number of Republican women in Congress, at latest count, will decline in the next session.

With the record-breaking group of women elected this year comes a crop of other records and firsts. For example, the next Congress will feature a record number of women of color, as well as a record number of non-incumbent women, according to the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics. It will also feature the first Native American women, the first Muslim women and the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

A still-gaping gender gap

Women swung far toward Democrats this year, but so did men — at least, relative to where they usually are.

Which is to say, the gap between female and male voters remained roughly as big as it has been in recent years, according to exit polls. Women were 21 points more likely to vote for Democrats than Republicans in House races — 60 percent voted for Democrats, to 38 percent who voted for Republicans.

Men, meanwhile, were about evenly split, with 50 percent voting for Republicans to 48 percent choosing Democrats.

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That's a big part of the story of 2018: many demographic groups swinging far more Democratic than they did in 2014, a wave year for Republicans.

But within the exit polls there are a few more broad lessons about partisanship by gender in America.

One is that it takes a lot to swing white women Democratic. According to exit polls, they were about evenly split this year, with 50 percent choosing Democrats, compared to 48 percent who chose Republicans. (And another massive pre-election poll found that white women may have slightly favored Republicans, 49 percent to 45 percent.)

In other words, even in a year where there's a Democratic wave in the House, white women are about evenly split. This is also roughly in line with 2006, which was another wave year for Democrats. White women were evenly split that year, too.

Another important trend from this year's exits (and any year's) is how gender interacts with race and education. Being white, a man, and not having a college degree all are factors correlated with being more Republican. Nonwhites, women and college graduates all tend to vote more Democratic.

That can create some wide chasms between groups. White women with college degrees voted strongly for Democrats, by 22 points. White men with college degrees, meanwhile, were evenly split, and whites without degrees voted strongly Republican, according to CNN's exit polls.

Meanwhile, about three-quarters of nonwhite voters, with or without college degrees, voted for Democratic candidates in their districts. (These results were not broken out by gender.)

These breakdowns by education and gender are the sources of some of the most profound demographic shifts in recent American politics. College-educated women, in particular, have swung hard toward Democrats in recent years. Though that swing was already in progress, Trump may have accelerated that trend.

Diverging views on gender

Exit polls also showed wide partisan gaps in views of gender. An overwhelming majority of Americans, nearly 8 in 10, said it's important to elect more women to public office. Among those who consider that "important," two-thirds voted for Democrats. Meanwhile, more than 8 in 10 of those who consider that "not important" voted for Republicans.

Views on sexual harassment diverged similarly: About 8 in 10 said they see it as a "serious problem," and nearly two-thirds of them voted Democratic. Among those who see harassment as "not a serious problem," nearly 8 in 10 voted Republican.

With reporting from NPR's Renee Klahr and Sean McMinn.</s>From a pair of Native American women to a Somali refugee to the first openly gay man elected governor, the 2018 midterm elections brought a series of history-making votes that marked major accomplishments for women and LGBT candidates.

Here’s a rundown of the history made Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

Record number of women to win seats in the House

A record number of women are projected to win seats in the House in a massive night for female candidates across the political spectrum.

As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected 96 women would win House races, with 31 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. That bests the previous record of 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Democrats Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland will become the first Native American women elected to Congress, CNN projected. Davids’ win in Kansas against GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder was a pickup for Democrats, who CNN projects to gain control of the House.

Haaland will replace New Mexico Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who vacated the seat to run for governor.

Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, according to their respective campaigns. Davids identifies as a lesbian, making her the first openly LGBT member of Congress from Kansas as well. She will enter Congress having previously worked as a lawyer and a former mixed martial arts fighter.

CNN projected Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will become the first Muslim women in Congress.

Victories for both were expected following primary victories earlier this year.

Tlaib will fill the seat formerly occupied by Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, who left office last year amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Omar will take the seat vacated by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. Ellison opted to run for Minnesota attorney general this year.

Omar, in addition to being one of the first Muslim women in Congress, will also be the first Somali-American member. She came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis’ bid for governor will be successful, CNN projected, meaning the openly gay member of Congress will become the first openly gay man elected governor.

Polis will succeed Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is term-limited from seeking the office again, and will defeat Republican gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton.

Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who identifies as bisexual, is already the first openly LGBT person to be elected governor. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey came out as gay before he stepped down from office in the early 2000s.

Polis was one of several LGBT candidates who ran for governor this cycle, along with Brown in Oregon, Vermont Democrat Christine Hallquist and Texas Democrat Lupe Valdez.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn became the first female senator to represent Tennessee when she outlasted a challenge from former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat who looked to run against his party to win in a state President Donald Trump won by 26 percentage points in 2016.

Blackburn, a conservative lawmaker closely tied to the President, looked to nationalize the Senate race as much as possible, hoping to tap into the same conservatism that elected Trump in order to blunt some goodwill Bredesen had built up during his two terms as governor. Trump visited the state three times.

Blackburn has served in the US House since 2003.

First female senator from Arizona guaranteed, if not yet known

Arizona is guaranteed to elect its first female senator. Following GOP Sen. Jeff Flake’s decision last year not to seek re-election, Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is facing off against GOP Rep. Martha McSally.

Sinema and McSally are locked in a tight race as of just after midnight ET Wednesday and it was unclear when a projection in the race may come.

Texas voters elected the state’s first two Hispanic women to Congress as Veronica Escobar won the seat to replace Rep. Beto O’Rourke in the congressional district near El Paso. O’Rourke gave up his seat in order to unsuccessfully run for Senate. CNN projects Escobar would defeat Rick Seeberger.

State Sen. Sylvia Garcia won a Houston-area district that was relinquished by the retiring Democratic Rep. Gene Green. CNN projects Garcia will defeat Phillip Aronoff.

Republican Kristi Noem will become South Dakota’s first female governor after defeating Democrat Billie Sutton, CNN projects. Noem had previously been serving as South Dakota’s at-large member of Congress.

Some firsts out of reach

While Tuesday marked a series of first steps for the nation, many other candidates fell short in their own groundbreaking bids.

Tallahassee Democratic Mayor Andrew Gillum would have become Florida’s first black governor, and Tuesday night saw him losing to Florida Republican Ron DeSantis. And in Vermont, Democratic nominee Christine Hallquist already made history as the first transgender major party nominee for governor, but she was unable to defeat GOP Gov. Phil Scott, CNN projected.

But as with Hallquist’s nomination being a first of its own, so were contests across the nation. The 2018 midterm elections saw a diverse field and a record high number of women running — and with votes cast, it remained to be seen as of Tuesday night how the full picture will shake out.</s>What is already the most diverse Congress ever will become even more so after elections which broke barriers of race and gender.

For the first time, a pair of Native American congresswomen are heading to the House, in addition to two Muslim congresswoman.

Massachusetts and Connecticut will also send black women to Congress as firsts for their states, while Arizona and Tennessee are getting their first female senators.

The high-profile midterm cycle that produced a record number of women contenders and candidates of colour means a number of winners will take office as trailblazers.

The inclusive midterm victories bode well for future election cycles, said Kimberly Peeler-Allen, co-founder of Higher Heights For America, a national organisation focused on galvanising black women voters and electing black women as candidates.

“This is going to be a long process to get us to a point of proportionate representation, but tonight is a giant step forward for what leadership can and will eventually look like in this country,” Ms Peeler-Allen said.

She added that even women of colour who were unsuccessful will inspire a new crop of candidates, similar to the white women encouraged to run after Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential election loss.

Some of Tuesday’s black female pioneers, like Illinois nurse and Democrat Lauren Underwood and Connecticut teacher and Democrat Jahana Hayes, were first-time candidates.

Others, like Massachusetts’ Ayanna Pressley, were political veterans. Most were considered long shots.

Several will represent districts that are majority white and that have been historically conservative, their victories a rejection of conventional wisdom on electability and the effects of gerrymandering that have historically assigned elected officials of colour to represent minority communities.

Ms Pressley, a Democrat and Boston city councilwoman, will represent Massachusetts’ Seventh Congressional District in the next Congress.

Ms Pressley stunned the political establishment in September, defeating a 10-term incumbent in the Democratic primary, and ran unopposed in the general.

“None of us ran to make history,” Ms Pressley told supporters in her acceptance speech Tuesday.

“We ran to make change. However, the historical significance of this evening is not lost on me. The significance of history is not lost on me.”

Half a century ago this week, New York’s Shirley Chisholm was elected the first black woman in Congress, and several of the black women elected Tuesday have said their campaigns were inspired by her example.

Also in the House, Democrats Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan will be the first Muslim women to serve in Congress. Marsha Blackburn greets supporters after she was declared the winner over Phil Bredesen in Tennessee (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

New Mexico Democrat Deb Haaland and Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids were elected the first two Native American women to serve in Congress.

Democrat Mike Espy, who will face Mississippi Republican Representative Cindy Hyde-Smith in a December runoff, could become the state’s first black senator since reconstruction.

And regardless of who wins in Arizona’s competitive Senate race, the state will elect either Republican Martha McSally or Democrat Kyrsten Sinema as the state’s first woman to serve in the chamber.

Also in the Senate, Republican Marsha Blackburn will become Tennessee’s first woman senator.

Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, was in a fierce battle to become America’s first black woman governor, while Democrat Andrew Gillum narrowly lost his bid to become the first black governor of Florida.

Idaho gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan also lost her race to become the country’s first Native American governor.

In Colorado, Jared Polis will be the country’s first openly gay man elected governor.

In New Jersey, Democratic Governor Jim McGreevy, elected in 2001, had been outed as gay while in office.</s>CLOSE From the first gay man to win a governor’s race to the youngest woman elected to Congress, many candidates made history in the 2018 midterm election. USA TODAY

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the winner of a Democratic Congressional primary in New York, greets a passerby in New York, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, the morning after she upset U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in Tuesday's primary election. (Photo: Mark Lennihan, AP)

WASHINGTON – More women will serve in Congress than ever before, with at least 118 set to fill seats after Tuesday's election.

As of midday on Wednesday, women had surpassed the current record of 107 voting members, according to race calls from the Associated Press analyzed by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The new total includes 31 first-time House members, seven more than the record set for freshmen women during the 1992 "Year of the Woman" election.

The surge was driven largely by Democrats as the party took over House control. Democrats account for 84 of 96 women set to serve in the House so far, including 30 of the 31 newcomers, according to a USA TODAY analysis.

Women will represent two-thirds of the districts that Democrats flipped, building on momentum from the "Resist" movement that followed President Donald Trump's election in 2016.

Next year’s freshman class will include women of color who have broken barriers in their states, plus the youngest woman ever elected to Congress – Democratic activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, who turned 29 in October.

Eleven women senators were elected, nearly all Democrats. Marsha Blackburn, a GOP U.S. representative, defeated Tennessee’s former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen in her bid to become the state’s first woman senator. U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, ousted Republican Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada.

Blackburn and Rosen will be joined by another freshman woman, although which one is not yet clear. Two U.S. representatives, Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, were locked in a tight Senate race in Arizona, where it may take days to count all ballots.

Nine women, meanwhile, have won governors' races.

Women were poised to make significant electoral gains in this “Year of the Woman” election. Their historic involvement follows the massive Women’s March to resist Trump’s presidency and the #MeToo movements’ protest against sexual misconduct in the workplace.

In CNN exit polls, almost 80% of voters said it was very or somewhat important to see more women elected. That was a higher priority for women than for men, but not by much, CNN said.

Women smashed records this election cycle in terms of the number who filed to run, the number of women who became their party's nominees for House, Senate and gubernatorial races, and even the number of women running against women in general election races.

For the first time in history, Americans could elect more than 100 women to the House, said David Wasserman, the U.S. House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

“That would not be occurring without Donald Trump in the White House,” Wasserman said. “It is a direct reaction to his election.”

The majority of those women who ran for House seats – 185 – were Democrats, while 52 were Republicans. About one-third were women of color.

Among the barrier-breaking races:

Michelle Lujan Grisham, a U.S. representative from New Mexico, became the first Democratic Latina governor.

Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat and member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat and member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe, were elected as the first Native American congresswomen. Results are still pending for Yvette Herrell, a GOP state representative in New Mexico and a member of the Cherokee Nation, who is running for Congress. Davids is also Kansas’ first LGBTQ member of Congress.

Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have become the first Muslim women in Congress. Omar, a Democratic Minnesota state representative, already the nation’s first Somali-American legislator, is now the state’s first woman of color elected to Congress. Tlaib, a former Michigan state legislator who is also a Democrat, had no Republican opponent in the 13th Congressional District, which includes parts of Detroit.

Guam elected its first woman governor, as former lawmaker Lou Leon Guerrero, a Democrat, claimed the position for her party for the first time since 2003.

Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat who ran unopposed, became the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

“When you think about what is a representative democracy, making sure that the perspectives and experiences of the entire population are mirrored in those legislative institutions, whether it’s at the state level or the federal level, is important,” said Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers' Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP). “Those experiences shape the policy priorities of those elected officials.”

Currently, 84 women serve as voting House members, including 61 Democrats and 23 Republicans. That has been the record since 2013, according to the Rutgers center.

Twenty-three women serve in the Senate, including six Republicans and 17 Democrats. Six women – two Democrats and four Republicans – are governors.

During the 1992 “Year of the Woman,” voters elected more new women – 24 – to Congress than in any previous decade, and that record has remained, according to Rutgers. That election followed Professor Anita Hill’s testimony on sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas during his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Congresswoman-elect Sharice Davids talks to a volunteer at her campaign office Oct. 1, 2018, in Overland Park, Kansas. Davids won election Tuesday, becoming one of the first Native American women headed to Congress. (Photo: Charlie Riedel, AP)

This year, protests against sexual misconduct in the workplace contributed to women's political involvement. Some candidates have shared their own #MeToo movement stories in their campaigns.

Others included their children in campaign ads, and in a couple of cases, even breastfed them. Another candidate, Liuba Grechen Shirley, a Long Island Democrat, won approval from the Federal Election Commission to use campaign funds for campaign-related child care expenses.

“To me, women win because she ran,” Walsh said, even though Shirley lost her race on Tuesday.

Midterm elections: Here are the candidates poised to make history Nov. 6

More: Women candidates put gender, family at forefront of campaigns

More: Female veterans fight for a new mission: Fixing Congress

More: Elections 2018 US Senate, House and Governor race results

Trump at one year: Women's March returns, but the real focus is midterms

Contributing: Matt Wynn, John Kelly, Chrissie Thompson

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/06/women-candidates-midterms/1845639002/</s>WASHINGTON — From a pair of Native American women to a Somali refugee to the first openly gay man elected governor, the 2018 midterm elections brought a series of history-making votes that marked major accomplishments for women and LGBT candidates.

Here’s a rundown of the history made Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

Record number of women to win seats in the House

A record number of women are projected to win seats in the House in a massive night for female candidates across the political spectrum.

As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected 96 women would win House races, with 31 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. That bests the previous record of 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Democrats Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland will become the first Native American women elected to Congress, CNN projected. Davids’ win in Kansas against GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder was a pickup for Democrats, who CNN projects to gain control of the House.

Haaland will replace New Mexico Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who vacated the seat to run for governor.

Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, according to their respective campaigns. Davids identifies as a lesbian, making her the first openly LGBT member of Congress from Kansas as well. She will enter Congress having previously worked as a lawyer and a former mixed martial arts fighter.

CNN projected Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will become the first Muslim women in Congress.

Victories for both were expected following primary victories earlier this year.

Tlaib will fill the seat formerly occupied by Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, who left office last year amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Omar will take the seat vacated by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. Ellison opted to run for Minnesota attorney general this year.

Omar, in addition to being one of the first Muslim women in Congress, will also be the first Somali-American member. She came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis’ bid for governor will be successful, CNN projected, meaning the openly gay member of Congress will become the first openly gay man elected governor.

Polis will succeed Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is term-limited from seeking the office again, and will defeat Republican gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton.

Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who identifies as bisexual, is already the first openly LGBT person to be elected governor. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey came out as gay before he stepped down from office in the early 2000s.

Polis was one of several LGBT candidates who ran for governor this cycle, along with Brown in Oregon, Vermont Democrat Christine Hallquist and Texas Democrat Lupe Valdez.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn became the first female senator to represent Tennessee when she outlasted a challenge from former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat who looked to run against his party to win in a state President Donald Trump won by 26 percentage points in 2016.

Blackburn, a conservative lawmaker closely tied to the President, looked to nationalize the Senate race as much as possible, hoping to tap into the same conservatism that elected Trump in order to blunt some goodwill Bredesen had built up during his two terms as governor. Trump visited the state three times.

Blackburn has served in the US House since 2003.

First female senator from Arizona guaranteed, if not yet known

Arizona is guaranteed to elect its first female senator. Following GOP Sen. Jeff Flake’s decision last year not to seek re-election, Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is facing off against GOP Rep. Martha McSally.

Sinema and McSally are locked in a tight race as of just after midnight ET Wednesday and it was unclear when a projection in the race may come.

Texas voters elected the state’s first two Hispanic women to Congress as Veronica Escobar won the seat to replace Rep. Beto O’Rourke in the congressional district near El Paso. O’Rourke gave up his seat in order to unsuccessfully run for Senate. CNN projects Escobar would defeat Rick Seeberger.

State Sen. Sylvia Garcia won a Houston-area district that was relinquished by the retiring Democratic Rep. Gene Green. CNN projects Garcia will defeat Phillip Aronoff.

Republican Kristi Noem will become South Dakota’s first female governor after defeating Democrat Billie Sutton, CNN projects. Noem had previously been serving as South Dakota’s at-large member of Congress.

Some firsts out of reach

While Tuesday marked a series of first steps for the nation, many other candidates fell short in their own groundbreaking bids.

Tallahassee Democratic Mayor Andrew Gillum would have become Florida’s first black governor, and Tuesday night saw him losing to Florida Republican Ron DeSantis. And in Vermont, Democratic nominee Christine Hallquist already made history as the first transgender major party nominee for governor, but she was unable to defeat GOP Gov. Phil Scott, CNN projected.

But as with Hallquist’s nomination being a first of its own, so were contests across the nation. The 2018 midterm elections saw a diverse field and a record high number of women running — and with votes cast, it remained to be seen as of Tuesday night how the full picture will shake out.</s>From a pair of Native American women to a Somali refugee to the first openly gay man elected governor, the 2018 midterm elections brought a series of history-making votes that marked major accomplishments for women and LGBT candidates.

Here’s a rundown of the history made Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

Record number of women to win seats in the House

A record number of women are projected to win seats in the House in a massive night for female candidates across the political spectrum.

As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected 96 women would win House races, with 31 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. That bests the previous record of 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Democrats Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland will become the first Native American women elected to Congress, CNN projected. Davids’ win in Kansas against GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder was a pickup for Democrats, who CNN projects to gain control of the House.

Haaland will replace New Mexico Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who vacated the seat to run for governor.

Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, according to their respective campaigns. Davids identifies as a lesbian, making her the first openly LGBT member of Congress from Kansas as well. She will enter Congress having previously worked as a lawyer and a former mixed martial arts fighter.

CNN projected Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will become the first Muslim women in Congress.

Victories for both were expected following primary victories earlier this year.

Tlaib will fill the seat formerly occupied by Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, who left office last year amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Omar will take the seat vacated by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. Ellison opted to run for Minnesota attorney general this year.

Omar, in addition to being one of the first Muslim women in Congress, will also be the first Somali-American member. She came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis’ bid for governor will be successful, CNN projected, meaning the openly gay member of Congress will become the first openly gay man elected governor.

Polis will succeed Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is term-limited from seeking the office again, and will defeat Republican gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton.

Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who identifies as bisexual, is already the first openly LGBT person to be elected governor. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey came out as gay before he stepped down from office in the early 2000s.

Polis was one of several LGBT candidates who ran for governor this cycle, along with Brown in Oregon, Vermont Democrat Christine Hallquist and Texas Democrat Lupe Valdez.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn became the first female senator to represent Tennessee when she outlasted a challenge from former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat who looked to run against his party to win in a state President Donald Trump won by 26 percentage points in 2016.

Blackburn, a conservative lawmaker closely tied to the President, looked to nationalize the Senate race as much as possible, hoping to tap into the same conservatism that elected Trump in order to blunt some goodwill Bredesen had built up during his two terms as governor. Trump visited the state three times.

Blackburn has served in the US House since 2003.

First female senator from Arizona guaranteed, if not yet known

Arizona is guaranteed to elect its first female senator. Following GOP Sen. Jeff Flake’s decision last year not to seek re-election, Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is facing off against GOP Rep. Martha McSally.

Sinema and McSally are locked in a tight race as of just after midnight ET Wednesday and it was unclear when a projection in the race may come.

Texas voters elected the state’s first two Hispanic women to Congress as Veronica Escobar won the seat to replace Rep. Beto O’Rourke in the congressional district near El Paso. O’Rourke gave up his seat in order to unsuccessfully run for Senate. CNN projects Escobar would defeat Rick Seeberger.

State Sen. Sylvia Garcia won a Houston-area district that was relinquished by the retiring Democratic Rep. Gene Green. CNN projects Garcia will defeat Phillip Aronoff.

Republican Kristi Noem will become South Dakota’s first female governor after defeating Democrat Billie Sutton, CNN projects. Noem had previously been serving as South Dakota’s at-large member of Congress.

Some firsts out of reach

While Tuesday marked a series of first steps for the nation, many other candidates fell short in their own groundbreaking bids.

Tallahassee Democratic Mayor Andrew Gillum would have become Florida’s first black governor, and Tuesday night saw him losing to Florida Republican Ron DeSantis. And in Vermont, Democratic nominee Christine Hallquist already made history as the first transgender major party nominee for governor, but she was unable to defeat GOP Gov. Phil Scott, CNN projected.

But as with Hallquist’s nomination being a first of its own, so were contests across the nation. The 2018 midterm elections saw a diverse field and a record high number of women running — and with votes cast, it remained to be seen as of Tuesday night how the full picture will shake out.</s>From a pair of Native American women to a Somali refugee to the first openly gay man elected governor, the 2018 midterm elections brought a series of history-making votes that marked major accomplishments for women and LGBT candidates.

Here’s a rundown of the history made Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

Record number of women to win seats in the House

A record number of women are projected to win seats in the House in a massive night for female candidates across the political spectrum.

As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected 96 women would win House races, with 31 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. That bests the previous record of 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Democrats Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland will become the first Native American women elected to Congress, CNN projected. Davids’ win in Kansas against GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder was a pickup for Democrats, who CNN projects to gain control of the House.

Haaland will replace New Mexico Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who vacated the seat to run for governor.

Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, according to their respective campaigns. Davids identifies as a lesbian, making her the first openly LGBT member of Congress from Kansas as well. She will enter Congress having previously worked as a lawyer and a former mixed martial arts fighter.

CNN projected Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will become the first Muslim women in Congress.

Victories for both were expected following primary victories earlier this year.

Tlaib will fill the seat formerly occupied by Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, who left office last year amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Omar will take the seat vacated by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. Ellison opted to run for Minnesota attorney general this year.

Omar, in addition to being one of the first Muslim women in Congress, will also be the first Somali-American member. She came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis’ bid for governor will be successful, CNN projected, meaning the openly gay member of Congress will become the first openly gay man elected governor.

Polis will succeed Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is term-limited from seeking the office again, and will defeat Republican gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton.

Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who identifies as bisexual, is already the first openly LGBT person to be elected governor. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey came out as gay before he stepped down from office in the early 2000s.

Polis was one of several LGBT candidates who ran for governor this cycle, along with Brown in Oregon, Vermont Democrat Christine Hallquist and Texas Democrat Lupe Valdez.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn became the first female senator to represent Tennessee when she outlasted a challenge from former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat who looked to run against his party to win in a state President Donald Trump won by 26 percentage points in 2016.

Blackburn, a conservative lawmaker closely tied to the President, looked to nationalize the Senate race as much as possible, hoping to tap into the same conservatism that elected Trump in order to blunt some goodwill Bredesen had built up during his two terms as governor. Trump visited the state three times.

Blackburn has served in the US House since 2003.

First female senator from Arizona guaranteed, if not yet known

Arizona is guaranteed to elect its first female senator. Following GOP Sen. Jeff Flake’s decision last year not to seek re-election, Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is facing off against GOP Rep. Martha McSally.

Sinema and McSally are locked in a tight race as of just after midnight ET Wednesday and it was unclear when a projection in the race may come.

Texas voters elected the state’s first two Hispanic women to Congress as Veronica Escobar won the seat to replace Rep. Beto O’Rourke in the congressional district near El Paso. O’Rourke gave up his seat in order to unsuccessfully run for Senate. CNN projects Escobar would defeat Rick Seeberger.

State Sen. Sylvia Garcia won a Houston-area district that was relinquished by the retiring Democratic Rep. Gene Green. CNN projects Garcia will defeat Phillip Aronoff.

Republican Kristi Noem will become South Dakota’s first female governor after defeating Democrat Billie Sutton, CNN projects. Noem had previously been serving as South Dakota’s at-large member of Congress.

Some firsts out of reach

While Tuesday marked a series of first steps for the nation, many other candidates fell short in their own groundbreaking bids.

Tallahassee Democratic Mayor Andrew Gillum would have become Florida’s first black governor, and Tuesday night saw him losing to Florida Republican Ron DeSantis. And in Vermont, Democratic nominee Christine Hallquist already made history as the first transgender major party nominee for governor, but she was unable to defeat GOP Gov. Phil Scott, CNN projected.

But as with Hallquist’s nomination being a first of its own, so were contests across the nation. The 2018 midterm elections saw a diverse field and a record high number of women running — and with votes cast, it remained to be seen as of Tuesday night how the full picture will shake out.</s>(CNN) Democrats Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland will become the first Native American women elected to Congress, CNN has projected.

In New Mexico, Haaland will replace Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who vacated the seat to run for governor, and Davids will unseat Kansas GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder.

Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, according to their respective campaigns.

The projected victories for the two Native American women mark a milestone in the US political system.

Davids identifies as a lesbian, making her the first openly LGBT member of Congress from Kansas . She will enter Congress as a lawyer and a former mixed martial arts fighter.

Read More</s>It has been a record-breaking season for women in politics.

First, a record number of women filed to run for office. Then a record number won their primaries. With voters heading to the polls on Tuesday, the most important record remains to be broken. Can a record number take office?

Experts say women appear poised to make a wave in the House of Representatives. But their chances are less robust in other areas.

It is less likely that women will set records in the Senate and in races for governor, said Kelly Dittmar, a researcher at the Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. She added that among Republicans, it's likely that women will actually lose representation in the House.

Women will have to take 85 seats in order to surpass the House record of 84 set in 2013, according to CAWP's tally. In the Senate, the number to beat is 23. In 2004, women won nine governor races, a record that stands to this day.

But Dittmar said it's important to look beyond the numbers.

"It's not a single narrative of women success across the board, but about certain types of women candidates," Dittmar said. The narrative, she said, is about "women of color, and the potential to increase racial and ethnic diversity in these offices."

Indeed, in Michigan, Democrat Rashida Tlaib, facing no Republican challenge, is on track to become the first Muslim-American woman in Congress. In Michigan, Somali refugee Ilhan Omar is also vying for the title. A victory for Omar would also mark the first time voters sent a Somali-American to Washington.

Sharice Davids is favored by pollsters to make history as a lesbian Native American in Congress. She is poised to unseat Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder, who handily won election to his Kansas district in 2016. Another Native American woman, Deb Haaland, is also likely to win a seat in a Democrat-leaning New Mexico district that went for both Clinton and Obama by double digits.

Democratic women are also positioned for gains in Pennsylvania, including three or more women who could crash the state's all-male House delegation. The state has never had more than two women at a time in its congressional delegation.</s>Women made history this Election Day, with the highest-ever number projected to win seats in the House of Representatives: As of early Wednesday morning, 96 women have reportedly won House races, with 31 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. The prior record of women in the House was 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The women elected in this year’s midterms include Democrats Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim women ever elected to Congress, as well as Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar, the first Latina congresswomen in Texas. Ayanna Pressley officially became Massachusetts’ first black woman elected to Congress, after unseating 10-term Representative Michael Capuano in the state primary. And as anticipated, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her election to the House in New York’s 14th Congressional District, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

The first Native American women were also elected. Democrat Sharice Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, defeated the Republican incumbent in Kansas’s Third Congressional District by nine points, becoming not only the first Native American woman elected to Congress, but also the state’s first openly gay representative — and the first former mixed-martial-arts fighter. Deb Haaland, who is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, won a seat in the First District in New Mexico.

“There is going to be a historic number of women walking onto the floor of the U.S. House in January … They’re going to change the way things work,” Stephanie Schriock, the president of the pro-choice PAC Emily’s List, told BuzzFeed News. “This is gonna be the most diverse freshmen class of women that we’ve ever brought in by far.”

Women also made history in the Senate and in governorships. Arizona is guaranteed to elect its first female senator, with two women — Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally — facing off in a close race after Jeff Flake’s departure. Meanwhile, Florida elected its first openly lesbian mayor, Teri Johnston.

But although women came out in droves to vote for left-leaning candidates, forming what many are calling a “pink wave,” many white women still voted for Republicans — including Republican men. In Georgia, Republican Brian Kemp received 50.5 percent of the electoral vote for governor, beating the progressive candidate Stacey Abrams by a small margin; if elected, Abrams would have been the first black woman elected as governor in the U.S. A staggering 76 percent of white women voted for Kemp, who boasted about being “politically incorrect” during his campaign, while 97 percent of black women went with Abrams. Likewise, in Texas, 59 percent of white women voted for Republican Senator Ted Cruz, while 95 percent of black women supported his challenger, the beloved Beto O’Rourke.

Nevertheless, the historic record of women and a Democratic majority in the House shows some promise for the years ahead.
At least 95 women attain congressional office, bringing the total number of women in all parts of Congress to a record 118. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar share the distinction of becoming the first Muslim congresswomen, while Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland become the first Native American congresswomen.