A record number of women will be elected to Congress this year, CNN projects, but with a minimal difference from the current one.
The 149 women who will serve in the US House of Representatives and Senate in the 118th Congress will expand the ranks of female representation by just two members above the record set by the current Congress.
Alaska took women across that threshold Wednesday night when the state determined through its ranked-choice voting system that Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat, will represent the state’s House at-large seat for one term. full after winning the previous special election this year, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski will win re-election.
Women will break an overall record in the House, with 124 taking office in January.
And not only will women of color break records in the 118th Congress, but within the House alone there will also be a record number of Black and Latina women. There will be four more Latinas in the House for a total of 18, the most in the history of the US Legislature, and one more black woman, bringing the total from 26 to 27.
More than half of the incoming 22 female freshmen in the House will be women of color, showing that chamber’s growing diversity.