Record number of women projected to win House races
At least 106 women will serve in the House in 2021, ABC News projects.
At least 106 women will serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the latest ABC News projections for the 2020 election, setting a new record.
This eclipses the previous record of 102 women, which was set in 2019, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a division of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Women of color set a new record this election cycle as well. Of the women elected to the House this year, at least 46 are women of color, according to ABC News projections, beating out 2019's record-setting 44.
Republican women are also making new gains after Democratic women saw much success in 2018.
At least 24 Republican women are projected by ABC News to win their contests. The current total stands just shy of the record of 25 GOP women serving in the House, which was set in 2006.
"Advances for women must come from both sides of the aisle if women are to achieve equal representation in Congress," CAWP Director Debbie Walsh said.
Despite all the gains, Walsh noted that women still remain grossly underrepresented in government, and the nation still has a long way to go before reaching full equal representation. She pointed out that at best, women will still account for less than 30% of Congress next year.
"Women's representation in American politics has been, through struggle and persistence, on a long, if occasionally fitful, upward trajectory," Walsh said in a statement.
Some notable GOP women winners include Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma's 5th District, Ashley Hinson of Iowa's 1st District and Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota's 7th District, who all flipped previously Democratic-held seats. Moreover, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia's 14th District and Lauren Boebert of Colorado's 3rd District, two controversial candidates who either embraced or showed support for baseless QAnon conspiracy theories, will also be among the Republicans ranks in the 117th U.S. Congress. Boebert has since stated she is “not a follower of QAnon.”
Some headline-making Democrat women who won House seats include Cori Bush, a progressive activist who, in the Democratic primary, unseated a longtime incumbent in Missouri's 1st District, making her the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress. In addition, Marilyn Strickland, the former Democratic mayor of Tacoma, Washington, also won her race in Washington's 10th District, making her the first African American member of the Washington state delegation and the first Korean American in Congress' history.
ABC News' Katie Kindelan contributed to this report.
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