If Steel wins, that number would be 151, the same number of women serving in Congress on Election Day, and the first stall in progress since 2016, when President-elect Donald Trump won his first term. Both scenarios mean the number of women in the next Congress will also fall short of the current record of 152 women, following Texas Democratic Rep. Erica Lee Carter’s special election win this month. Senate Republican women will also meet their current record, with nine in the chamber. The number of House Republican women will decrease because of some losses and retirements, falling from 34 in the current Congress to 31 or 32, depending on Steel and Miller-Meeks’ races. After Trump’s first election in 2016, Democrats did see a surge in women running for Congress in 2018, and a wave of Republican women stepped up to run two years later in 2020.

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Persons: Mary Peltola, Republican Nick Begich, Michelle Steel, Derek Tran, Steel, Mariannette Miller, Meeks, Christina Bohannon, Donald Trump, Kelly Dittmar, Erica Lee Carter’s, ” Dittmar, Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks, Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester, North Dakota Republican Julie Fedorchak, South Carolina Republican Sheri Biggs, Elise Stefanik, Stefanik, ” Danielle Barrow, Sara Spain, Dittmar, ’ ”, Oregon’s Janelle Bynum, Laura Gillen, House Republicans ’, Trump’s, It’s, “ We’ve Organizations: Democratic Rep, NBC News, Republican, Senate, Center for American Women, Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute, Politics, Steel, Trump, Texas Democratic, Democratic, Senate Republican, North Dakota Republican, South Carolina Republican, United Nations, GOP, House Republicans Locations: Alaska, Southern California, Iowa’s, South, West Virginia , Ohio, Montana