Americans elected a record number of women to the U.S. House in the 2018 midterms.
As of early Wednesday afternoon, with a few tight races still left to call, there were at least 96 women elected to the House ― including at least 40 women of color ― reaching a historic high.
Currently there are 84 women serving in the House of Representatives, according to the Los Angeles Times. The previous record high was 85 congresswomen, per the Congressional Research Service.
Women already broke barriers in the lead-up to the general election, with arecord number of women nominated in 2018, including anunprecedented number of women of color.
Several women elected to Congress on Tuesday night will be sure to go down in America’s history books: Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and Ilhan Omar in Minnesota became the first Muslim women elected to the body, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York became the youngest congresswoman ever, at age 29. Ayanna Pressley became the first black congresswoman out of Massachusetts.
A wave of women was inspired to run for office for the first time after Donald Trump won the presidency. Trump has had an ongoing history of making sexistcomments about women and has also been accused of sexual misconduct or assault by more than 20 women.
