Record number of House Republican women just one of many firsts for upcoming 117th Congress

Republicans will have at least 26 women in the House of Representatives — the most they have ever had and more than double what they have now — in the next Congress.

Change is a coming
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Record number of House Republican women just one of many firsts for upcoming 117th Congress.

In the wake of election earlier this month, the Grand Old Party will have the most Republican women it has ever seen elected to the House of Representatives.

Overall, it would appear that the GOP will likely also pick up as many as thirteen seats in the House by the time court challenges and recounts have concluded, including probably taking three seats in the blue bastion of California and two more in also deep blue New York.

Additionally, per a bipartisan tally, roughly twenty-five percent of the members in both the House and Senate will be female come the New Year and so setting a record number of female members on Capital Hill.

Female members of Congress attending a Ruth Bader Ginsburg memorial event
A Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call photo

Most dramatic, however, is how incoming new Republican female members of the House will outnumber Democratic female House newbies by at least seventeen to nine, an almost two to one margin. 

Further, the GOP will see a doubling of its current number of its female members of Congress come the New Year.

Granted, while there will be roughly three times more Democratic female members of the House and Senate than female Republican members come the New Year, the momentum for breaking the glass ceiling in national politics looks to have gone Red this election cycle in spite of the GOP being stuck with President Donald Trump at the top of the ballot.

Further, the newly and incoming Republican women are mostly conservative to very conservative and thus at least some feminist leaning and progressives groups are saying that they are not the right kind of females.

Putting on a brave face in the face of impending turmoil?
A file photo

In short, given a fair looking through the final and soon to be final results in this year’s 435 House of Representative races, it is apparent that the expected Democratic Blue Wave in this year’s elections was more like a low tide.

That and how the top female in the House of Representatives, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, is now looking at a much thinner and but likely to be but nine seat majority in the House come the fast approaching 117th Session of Congress.

That and probably continuing to face Republican Senator Mitch McConnell as the Senate Majority Leader following the two Senate election runoffs in Georgia in early January and which are thus prolonging the election year agony for Georgians for another seven weeks.

Live by the tweet, die from the vote count?
A Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images images

Similarly facing consternation is the arguably most widely know progressive in the House and who was just reelected to her second term even though progressives as a whole continue to be but a small faction in the House of Representatives.

Needless to say, Quincy Quarry’s ever-growing legions can count on the Quarry to report on any fur flying on Capital Hill in the coming weeks and months.

Read more: Record number of House GOP women just one of many ‘firsts’ for 117th Congress – Roll Call

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