Current Congress: Temporary New Records

With the swearing in of Representative Erica Lee Carter to fill the seat of her late mother, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, for the remainder of the 118th Congress, new records have been established for women in Congress, according to the Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Those new records are:

• 152 (108D, 43R, 1Ind) women now serve in Congress. (Previous record: 151, first set in 2023.)
• 127 (93D, 34R) women now serve in the House. (Previous record: 126, first set in 2023.)
• 108 Democratic women now serve in Congress. (Previous record: 107, first set in 2022.)
• 93 Democratic women now serve in the House. (Previous record: 92, first set in 2023.)
• 30 (30D) Black women now serve in Congress. (Previous record: 29, first set in 2023.)
• 29 (29D) Black women now serve in the House. (Previous record: 28, first set in 2023.)

Carter did not compete in the 2024 regular election to serve in the 119th Congress. As such, she is not counted among the numbers that follow regarding the next Congress.
 

Women in the 119th Congress

Meanwhile, women’s representation in the 119th Congress is still not fully determined, as seven races with women candidates remain too close to call. However, with results as they currently stand, CAWP can say the following about women’s representation in Congress in 2025.

• With 16 Democratic women winning election to the Senate or set to serve as holdovers and 92 Democratic women thus far winning election to the House, Democratic women will definitely maintain (and could exceed) their current representation in Congress (108 seats), and they appear likely to at least maintain their current representation in the House (93). Six Democratic women remain in House contests that are too close to call.
• With nine Republican women winning election to the Senate or set to serve as holdovers, 30 Republican women thus far winning election to the House, and only three Republican women in outstanding congressional contests, Republican women will fall short of their current representation in Congress (43). Republican women will definitely lose representation in the House as well. With just three Republican women remaining in House races that are too close to call, they are four seats short of their current level of House representation (34).
• Based on current results, and including two races that are too close to call where both candidates are women, women will hold at least 149 seats in the 119th Congress, three short of the new record of 152 (28.4%). With five women in mixed-gender congressional contests that remain too close to call, the maximum representation for women in the next Congress is 154 (28.68%).

These numbers do not account for the expected resignation of U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has been announced as President-elect Donald Trump's selection for U.N. ambassador. 

For the latest data on results for women candidates in the 2024 elections, visit CAWP’s 2024 Election Results Tracker and our Results for Women Congressional and Statewide Executive Candidates in Election 2024 analysis post.