Now that the final contested US House race has been called—CA-21, which just flipped Democratic after it was initially called for the Republican incumbent on Election Day—we can announce some numbers.
First, 126: The number of women who will serve in the 116th Congress. That includes 106 Democrats, 20 Republicans, 102 House Members, 24 Senators, and a vast improvement on the previous high of 108.
Some fun facts: The record number of women and people of color coming to Congress means white men will be in the body’s minority for the first time ever. We’ll also see the average age of a member of Congress drop 10 years because of the influx of younger members. Currently the average age of a House Member is 57; the average Senator is 61.
And there’s more electoral math in the results of our Election Night Contest. In addition to 126—the number of women who will serve starting in January—the results are:
235: The number of Democrats who will be in the US House of Representatives in 2019
47: The number Democrats who will be in the US Senate in 2019
53: The number of Senate Republicans in 2019
47: The number who will be women of color in Congress
23: The number of governorships Democrats will hold in 2019
6: The number who will be Democratic women
14: The number of legislative trifectas—where one party controls the governorship and both state legislative chambers—Democrats will have in 2019.
Dozens of you guessed these answers, but only one of you came close enough to win a WomenCount market bag: Dana K. of Palo Alto, California! Dana is a mom and a lawyer, and says she gives to WomenCount because “our world would be a better place with more women in power … in the political arena as well as in basically every arena.”
Congratulations, Dana!
And thank you for all that you’ve done to make this year at WomenCount an amazing success. We are still crowdfunding for crowdfunding! Please support our work as part of your year-end giving.