Number of women in Congress stalls for the first time since Trump's 2016 election
Women have made significant gains in Congress in recent elections, but that progress has stalled for the first time since 2016, falling short of the current record levels.
Women have made significant gains in Congress in recent elections, but that progress has stalled for the first time since 2016, falling short of the current record levels.
The latest woman to lose her race is Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, with NBC News projecting her defeat to Republican Nick Begich in Alaska. One other female lawmaker, GOP Rep. Michelle Steel, is locked in a tight and uncalled race in Southern California, where she is currently trailing Democrat Derek Tran by a narrow margin.
If Steel also loses, the number of women in the next Congress, including both the House and the Senate, will reach 150 (including the eventual winner of Iowa’s 1st District recount between GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Christina Bohannon). That means the next Congress could begin one fewer woman than the 151 who were in Congress on Election Day, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics — the first decline since 2010 and only the second since 1978.
If Steel wins, that number would be 151, the same number of women serving in Congress on Election Day, and the first stall in progress since 2016, when President-elect Donald Trump won his first term.
In both elections, Trump defeated primary and general election opponents seeking to become the first female president. After his first election, women made significant gains in Congress in the 2018 and 2020 elections, but that progress slowed in 2022 in part because House races were shaken up by redistricting, said Kelly Dittmar, director of research and a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics.
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