Democrats pressing to win control of Congress in the midterm elections are also reaching for a major milestone in their ranks: electing at least 100 women to the House, the most ever in a legislative body that is still heavily dominated by older white men.
With female candidates competing in many key districts that will determine the House majority, and polls showing the party gaining ground in those contests, Democrats are projecting they could have as many as 113 women in their ranks next year.
“I’m incredibly confident that we will pass that 100 mark,” Representative Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, chairwoman of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, said in an interview. “The real issue is how far above it do we go.”
The peak projection of 113 could only be reached if Democrats won every competitive race, including a few that more strongly favor Republicans, a highly unlikely scenario even in the best of years. But even reaching 100 would be a high-water mark that was unthinkable just a generation ago. When Emily’s List, the largest funder of female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, was founded in 1985, less than 5 percent of the House Democratic Caucus were women. Now, it is approaching 50 percent.
“We have all along in this election cycle put women front and center to deliver the House majority,” said Jessica Mackler, the president of Emily’s List, who noted that women backed by the organization make up a majority of tossup House races.
That didn’t happen by accident. This year, 18 out of the 40 Democrats in the party’s “Red to Blue” program that funds top contenders in battleground districts are women.
“Women are going to give Democrats the majority in two ways,” Ms. Leger Fernández said. “We’re going to elect women candidates who will flip the House, and it’s also women voters who will come out and overwhelmingly vote for Democratic candidates, because the two hardest-hit groups by the Republicans’ policies have been Latinos and women.”
Currently, there are 97 women in the House Democratic Caucus (including two nonvoting delegates who represent Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands), a record for female representation accounting for around 45 percent of Democratic members.
While some are retiring, Democrats expect those who remain to be joined by a large crop of women running in safe Democratic districts and others who are strongly favored to win competitive races in an environment that polls show is favorable to their party, resulting in even higher numbers next year.
The first tier of candidates Democratic leaders are counting on includes a dozen women who are running in open or safely Democratic seats, including Melat Kiros in Colorado; Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York and Stefany Shaheen in New Hampshire.
Three others pressing to flip Republican districts are seen as very likely to win: Marni von Wilpert, who is running in a newly drawn California district; Denise Powell, who is seeking a Democratic-trending Nebraska seat currently occupied by Republican Representative Don Bacon; and Rebecca Bennett, who is polling ahead of Representative Tom Kean Jr., the lawmaker who was absent from Congress for over 100 days for what he later revealed was a struggle with depression.
A dozen more women are running in races that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report ranks as “tossups.” Ms. Leger said she was confident that three or more of them would win in November. They include challengers to some of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents, including Representatives Rob Bresnahan Jr. of Pennsylvania, Jen Kiggans of Virginia, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, Mike Lawler of New York and Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa.
If a handful of Democratic women running to flip more Republican-leaning districts in Colorado, Florida, Iowa and South Carolina prevail, the ranks could swell even more.
Should Democrats win the majority, Ms. Leger said she expected women to be the driving force next year on an agenda focused on child care and elder care.
In her state of New Mexico, she said, “we have a majority-women legislature with a woman governor and we have universal child care; I want to see that kind of progress.”
Kelly Dittmar, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, said that representation mattered also “for perceptions of legitimacy.” A growing number of women serving in legislatures not only changes policy but “changes the institutions themselves,” she said.
As an example, Ms. Dittmar pointed to the reaction in 2020 to an episode in which Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, was called a “fucking bitch” by a male Republican colleague. Instead of letting it go, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez delivered a floor speech in which she read the vulgarity into the congressional record, and other female lawmakers rose to recount their own stories of experiencing sexism in the halls of power.
Ms. Leger said having more women in Congress would also be more effective than any policy change in addressing the culture of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill.
“When you have close to 50 percent of the Democratic caucus understanding what is it like to be on the other end of sexual assault, sexual mistreatment, sexual harassment, the conversation changes,” she said.
Republicans have far less gender diversity in their ranks in the House, where there are currently 32 G.O.P. women (including two nonvoting delegates) — around 15 percent of their members — and are at risk of those levels dropping further. To maintain the party’s number of female House members, it’s likely that six vulnerable G.O.P. women would have to succeed in fending off their challengers next month.
The G.O.P. is also losing much of its racial diversity in the House: All four Black Republicans serving there are leaving Congress next year.
Representative Emilia Sykes, Democrat of Ohio, said there were still small daily reminders that she served in an institution that was not designed with her in mind, even as the number of women climbed.
“The size of the chairs is a problem,” Ms. Sykes said. “I’m not a big person; sitting in the chairs that are very large, my feet dangle.”
She said she sometimes receives letters addressed to “the congressman,” which boggles her mind.
“I think, ‘OK, you’re coming to advocate for millions of dollars and significant policy changes, and you have the lack of research to know the member isn’t a man,’” she said.
Ms. Sykes said her journey to Congress as a young Black woman has been challenging: Fund-raising has been more difficult for her, she said. Consultants were quick to overlook her when she first wanted to run. But she said she was a firm believer in the mantra “if you see it, you can be it.”
“For the women who have found their way,” she added, “the fights that they’re fighting are incredible.”
The post Democrats Project a Party Milestone in Congress: 100 Women in the House appeared first on New York Times.
