The 117th U.S. Congress will be sworn in this Sunday, with a record number of women joining the ranks.
The boost is driven by gains by Republican women. There are a record 29 women from the GOP who will serve in the House.
Before that, the record for the party was 25 set in 2006, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
A total of 89 Democratic women are being sworn into the House, which ties the record set in 2019.
Congresswoman-elect Kat Cammack from Florida is among the new Republican women joining the house.
“Women were out campaigning on their experience, on their backgrounds, not on their gender and I think that is why so many were successful. I know for me personally, I never started a conversation with ‘vote for me because I’m a woman,’ or ‘vote for me because I’m the youngest one in the field.’ I want you to vote for me because I’m the best one for the job,” said Cammack.
A political expert we spoke with says the gains by Republican women in Congress will be key for the party going forward.
“We saw that Donald Trump increased his vote share from 2016 to 2020 among white women. And so, ensuring that these voters who have consistently, despite billions of dollars to persuade them not to vote for Donald Trump, still voted for him, will have other people to vote for a party that has now seen women break through and win and this is going to be incredible for ensuring that you continue to have those white women supporting the Republican ticket,” said Sonja Diaz, founder of the UCLA Latino Politics and Policy Institute.
There will be 17 democratic women senators in the new Congress. There are nine Republican senators already elected to serve in 2021. That ties the record set in 2020.
However, the number could change depending on what happens in the Georgia runoff elections on January 5. Senator Kelly Loefller is in a runoff to keep her seat.
The Georgia runoffs will also decide which party will control the Senate.
