According to the NY Times, 97 million votes rolled in for the midterm elections (with more to count), a massive increase compared to last midterms in 2014, which was a mere 79 million.
More than 100 women will be serving in the House next year, a record in U.S history. The highest number of women in Congress just beat the record high from 1992; the Democratic Party being responsible for this rise: 18 of the 29 Democrat seats were won by women on Tuesday. Many more women will likely be added to the roster in the coming days.
After nearly a decade of absence in the House of Representatives, Democrats have won it back, while Republicans will extend their control over the Senate. Although women have made history, Republicans still rule the Senate, and these past midterm elections only reinforce the fact that our nation is deeply divided in the realm of politics.
What does the larger majority of Republicans in the Senate mean? In raw political terms, it means that Senators like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins will have a little less power over Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. He has a broader number of Republican senators, so he can afford to lose both female Senators and still pass major pieces of legislation.
This extend in Republican power also has an impact in Judicial nominations and cabinet appointments (Take Cavanaugh as example). Donald Trump will continue to nominate federal judges and Republicans will have an easier time confirming them.
Democrats won the House but the GOP party still has the upper-hand on the electoral map, including dominance over of the conservative states that hold major power in the Senate, and a tenacious hold on the governorships of the two biggest swing states on the presidential map, Florida and Ohio.
In better news, women elected made history not only by being female, but with their age, gender, and race. In New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest person to ever hold a seat in the House is a 29-year-old Latina female. Other victories are Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, which are the first two ever Muslim-American women in Congress.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ELECTION
- Voting rights were restored to 1.4 million Floridians
- For the first time in history Americans elected more than 100 women to the U.S. House of Representatives
- For the first time, two Muslim women will serve in Congress
- Colorado elected the nation’s first openly gay male governor
- Two female Native American women were elected to Congress for the first time
- New York’s 14th District will have the youngest woman ever elected to Congress representing them
- Oh, and we took back the damn House! Democrats had the biggest gain since Watergate, with 35 seats elected to the House of Representatives.