A record number of women are projected to win seats in the House in a massive night for female candidates across the political spectrum.
As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected 98 women would win House races, with 33 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. That bests the previous record of 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service. There are still two outstanding races that have two women competing against each other, which means that at least 100 women will be serving in the House next year.
On the Senate side, CNN projected by early Wednesday that 12 women would win Senate seats, with two newly elected women joining nine female incumbents.
CNN projected at the same time that eight women — four incumbents and four non-incumbents — would win gubernatorial races.
The numbers in each category tilted largely to Democrats, with 84 of the projected female House winners coming from the Democratic Party and 14 from the Republican side.
In Virginia, Democratic challenger Abigail Spanberger has defeated Republican incumbent Dave Brat in the race for the 7th Congressional House seat. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Spanbergeras garnered 50.31 percent of the vote (175,794) to 48.43 percent (169,220) for Brat.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – NOVEMBER 06: Abigail Spanberger Democratic candidate for Virginia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives, celebrates with members of her campaign staff after hearing that her race had been called in her favor November 6, 2018 in Richmond, Virginia. Spanberger, a former CIA officer, declared victory over Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) in their race for a seat that has been under Republican control since 1968. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Brat has yet to concede.
A tally from the Congressional Research Service said the previous record of 85 representatives served in the 114th Congress, including two members who resigned and one who was elected to fill a vacancy. A previous tally from Rutgers’ Center for American Woman and Politics had the current record total of women in the House at 84 and the overall total including the Senate at 107.
The 98 House members projected as of Wednesday morning would clear either total for that chamber, while the Senate side had mixed results by gender. A projected win for Tennessee Republican Senator-elect Marsha Blackburn came the same night as the projected loss for North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. Additionally, Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill was projectedto lose her re-election bid, and Nevada Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen was projected to unseat Republican Sen. Dean Heller.
Arizona is poised to elect its first female senator no matter what party wins, which will add to the Senate tally above.
The historic totals capped off a campaign season in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election that was defined in large part by female activism.
A CNN analysisat the outset of the general election noted 256 women won House and Senate primaries — a record level that paved the way for Tuesday’s victories.
As with the initial projected totals, those primary wins by females tilted largely towards Democrats. Fifty-nine of the candidates were Republican, and 197 were Democrats.
The midterm elections saw women securing historic firsts around the country, from the first Native American women to join the House of Representatives to Tennessee electing a woman to the Senate for the first time. And in several cases, the result was preordained one way or another because both major party candidates in a given race were women, as in the Arizona Senate contest.
A CNN analysis found 32 such two-women contests around the country.
This story has been updated and will continue to be updated as more races are called.
