Women In Congress

Most Significant Events Of 2019 In Public Affairs

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When one looks back at the most significant events of 2019 in public affairs, the following would stand out in no special order:

The impeachment of Donald Trump on charges of Obstruction of Justice and Abuse of Congress.

The Democratic House of Representatives passing about 400 bills, but almost all going nowhere in the Republican Senate.

The growing influence of Democratic women in Congress, with the most ever being elected to the House of Representatives.

The magnificent leadership and courage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

The continuing crisis of global warming and climate change, and the refusal of the US government under Donald Trump to deal with the evolving disaster.

The total lack of empathy, compassion, common decency of the US government toward refugees at the border, particularly the separation of children from their families, often with no tracking and paper work done, meaning many children are lost forever to their parents.

The US Government attack on the intelligence community, the diplomatic community, the judiciary, and the civil servants who serve our nation honorably, and are now being trashed, and many resigning or being forced out, a major loss long run to the American nation.

The growing evidence of the US government being manipulated by foreign powers, including Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other authoritarian dictatorships, at the expense of America’s traditional allies, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as allies in Asia, including Japan and South Korea.

The growing evidence of corruption, malfeasance, and incompetence of many members of the Donald Trump cabinet, as well as other top officials in many agencies of the US government.

The growing division of the American people by race, nationality, religion, gender, age, and sexual orientation, being encouraged and promoted by the racism, nativism, misogyny, antisemitism, and homophobia of the Trump Administration policies, and the total lack of civility and promotion of bullyism advanced by the 45th President.

The Most Diverse Congress In American History

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The 116th Congress, which opened on Wednesday, is the most diverse in American history.

It contains the following in the House of Representatives, “the people’s branch”:

102 women

52 African Americans

39 Hispanic-Latino Americans

20 Asian Americans

34 Jewish Americans

2 Native Americans

2 Muslim Americans

Most of these groups are Democrats, with only a scattering of Republicans among them.

So we have a very diverse Democratic Party, and a heavily white Christian male Republican Party.

The future is in the hands of the Democrats long term, and if the Republican Party does not become more diverse and back away from the cancer of Donald Trump, the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, Reagan, and Bush will end up in the dustbin of history, to be replaced by a moderate conservative party under a different banner and agenda.



Nearly One Out Of Four Members Of The 116th Congress Will Be Women, All Time High

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The role of women in American politics has grown dramatically in recent years, and in 2019-2020, the 116th Congress will have its highest number of women in history, 102 in the House of Representatives, and 25 in the US Senate.

89 of the House women are Democrats, while 13 are Republicans, and in the Senate, 17 women are Democrats, and 8 are Republicans.

So 106 women in Congress are Democrats, as compared to 21 Republicans, nearly five times the rate among Democrats as compared to Republicans.

Every state except four have had Congresswomen, the only exceptions being Alaska, Iowa, North Dakota and Vermont, but with the first three having elected Senators, so only Vermont has never had a woman represent the state in Congress.

Nearly 38 percent of Democrats in the House of Representatives are women, while only 6.5 percent of Republicans are women.

About the same percentage, 38 percent, of Democrats in the Senate are women, while about 14 percent of Republicans are women. 

35 Democratic women were elected to the House of Representatives in November 2018, to just 1 Republican woman, an amazing statistic.

2 Democratic women were elected to the Senate in November 2018, to just 1 Republican,  plus 1 Republican appointed to fill a seat to 2020.

So clearly,  the Democrats are the party of women by vast margins, as compared to Republicans.

The longest serving Congresswoman ever, Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, has served 36 years and will start her 19th term in January.

Nancy Pelosi, the past and future Speaker of the House, is starting her 17th term in Congress, having served 32 years.

And this all began with Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana, elected to serve in 1917-1918, and sponsoring the woman suffrage 19th Amendment.

The 116th Congress, 2019-2020, In Detail: Hopefully, The First Step To A Democratic Senate and Democratic President Elected In 2020

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The 116th Congress, opening on January 3, 2019, will have exactly 100 new members, an all time high turnover.

It will contain 235 Democrats and 200 Republicans in the House of Representatives, a gain of 40 seats by the Democrats, the most massive turnover since the Midterm Elections of 1974, after Richard Nixon had resigned that August due to the Watergate Scandal.

The Senate will be 53 Republicans to 45 Democrats and 2 Independents (Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont), an increase of two seats for the Republicans.

It is much more “Blue” or Democratic and younger and more diverse in every way, a true “Blue Wave”.

The average age of the newcomers is age 49.

63 of the new members are Democrats, and 37 are Republicans, with the Democrats having 60 new House members and 3 Senators, while the Republicans have 31 new House members and 6 Senators.

So there are 91 new House members and 9 new Senators, making a turnover of about 20 percent of the House and 9 percent of the Senate in membership.

40 of the new 100 members of Congress are women, 36 in the House and 4 in the Senate.

60 of the new members are men, 55 in the House and 5 in the Senate.

24 of the new House members are Hispanic, Native American and people of color, but all of the newly elected Senators are white.

History Makers include: Marsha Blackburn (R) of Tennessee, the first woman elected to Congress from her state; two Native American women elected to the House from Kansas and New Mexico; the Kansas Congresswoman being the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Kansas; first two Latina women elected to Congress from Texas; first Muslim women elected to Congress from Michigan and Minnesota; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York the youngest elected Congresswoman ever in Congress; the first black Congresswoman ever elected from Massachusetts and Connecticut; and Kyrsten Sinema the first woman elected to the Senate from Arizona, and also first openly bisexual member of the Senate.

We also have older new members in their 70s, Mitt Romney in the Senate at 71, and Donna Shalala of Florida in the House at 77.

The new Congressional group is highly educated, with 70 percent having gone to graduate school; one third having law degrees; 12 having MBAs; seven members having at least two graduate degrees; and Kyrsten Sinema having four graduate degrees.

19 members have served in the military, including 6 in the Army, 11 in the Navy, and 2 in the Air Force.

4 of the newcomers are professional athletes in their past, including 2 NFL football players, 1 professional hockey player, and 1 mixed martial arts fighter.

Also, there are 3 doctors, one dentist, 1 nurse, and 5 educators in the group of 100 new members of Congress.

The average age of members of Congress remains about the same as it has been, 58.5 years.

The total number of women in Congress are 124, an all time high, including 100 in the House and 24 in the Senate.

Finally, 21 percent of the Congress is Hispanic, Native American, and people of color.

Hopefully, the “Blue Wave” of 2018 will lead to a Democratic Senate and Democratic President in the Presidential Election of 2020.

2018–The Year Of The Women Taking Over American Government

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Hillary Clinton may have lost the Electoral College to Donald Trump on the way to a massive popular vote margin of 2.85 million popular votes in 2016.

Now, two years later, it is clear that women have reacted against Donald Trump, and the Republican Party faces doom unless they repudiate his misogyny rapidly.

The gender gap in voting between men and women is dramatic, has widened, and will affect society in the short run and the long run.

There will be more women in the 116th Congress, with at least 122 women, and about 80 percent of them being Democrats.

States that never had a woman Senator will have them, including Tennessee, Arizona, and Nevada.

There are going to be more women of color, including more African American women, Latino women, Asian American women, Native American women, Muslim women, Hindu women, as well as gay women and younger women in Congress.

There will be nine or ten women governors, up from six, including in Michigan, Kansas, South Dakota, and if a miracle occurs in Georgia, Stacey Abrams, a race not yet decided.

And we are about to see the likelihood of four women Senators announcing for President in the coming months on the Democratic side—Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

The 116th Congress Will Have The Most Minorities And Women In American History

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The 116th Congress (2019-2020) will set a record for the most minorities and women in Congress in American history.

Right now, in the 115th Congress, racial and ethnic minorities represent more than 45 percent of House Democrats, and women make up one third of the Democrats in the chamber.

Republicans on the other hand, have very few of either group right now, and not likely to have much more representation in the next Congress.

83 House members who are minorities right now are Democrats, while only 12 are Republicans.

There are 84 Women in the House, and about two thirds are Democrats.

The Senate has 9 members who are minorities, three African American, two Asian American, and four Hispanic American. Three of the nine (Tim Scott, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio) are Republicans, while the other six (Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth, Mazie Hirono, Bob Menendez, Catherine Cortez Masto) are Democrats.

There are 23 women in the Senate, with 6 being Republicans and 17 being Democrats.

America will have a much more representative Congress, not just a typical white male dominance as was the case in most of American history.

The Year Of The Woman 2018 Likely To Surpass The Earlier Year, 1992!

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In 1992, we saw a major increase in women officeholders, a reaction against the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas controversy of 1991, with the number of women in Congress and in state legislatures dramatically rising.

It now seems likely that 2018 will see a massive rise of women into both houses of Congress, the governorships, and state legislature, with Donald Trump”s misogyny, along with the Republican attack on women’s health, sexual harassment, and treatment in society motivating greater participation in running for office as Democrats, and the expected much increased plan of women to vote across the country.

107 women presently serve in the US Congress (78 Democrats, 29 Republicans), with 84 in the House of Representatives and 23 in the US Senate.

Over 1,900 women serve in state legislatures, and six women serve as state governors, four Republicans and two Democrats.

Over 1,200 Democratic women are in state legislatures, with about 700 Republican women serving.

Overall, about 20-25 percent in elected positions across the nation are women.

So many women, particularly Democrats, are winning nominations for legislative and congressional seats and for governor, so we should see an all time high in November, once the election results are in.

As many as 77 women, two thirds of them Democrats, are running for Governor in the 36 states that have gubernatorial elections in 2018. There could be more than 9 women governors, which is the all time record.

32 Democratic women and 22 Republican women are running for the US Senate in 2018, and we should see more than the all time high of 24.

Women have voted in greater numbers than men in recent years, and that should be continued, with the motivation of Donald Trump, and now with the likelihood of a move in the Supreme Court to outlaw abortion, a divisive issue which will draw women to the polls in growing numbers.

Classy Senator Barbara Mikulski Of Maryland To Retire After Longest Service Of Any Woman In Congressional History!

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A true giant of the US Senate, willing to fight for her liberal beliefs over 40 years, Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, has announced her retirement in 2016, joining another outstanding woman Senator, Barbara Boxer of California, in choosing to retire.

Mikulski will have served five terms, 30 years in the Senate, the all time record, and also served ten years in the House, making her 40 years an all time record for women in Congress. She surpassed the 35 years of Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers, Republican of Massachusetts, who served from 1925 to 1960 in the House of Representatives.

Along the way, Mikulski has “raised hell”, and always been there for her constituents, the average people of her state of Maryland, fighting the good fight as a leading progressive on all issues. She began her career as a community organizer, the same activity that Barack Obama was engaged in, and often ridiculed, which is horrible, as community organizers work with the poor. Why should anyone deplore such people, who truly commit themselves to those less fortunate? And yet, we live in a nation in 2015 where this is seen as a negative, rather than the positive impact that it has on those not privileged in our society!

The likelihood is that former Governor Martin O’Malley, who wants to be President, but has almost no chance to seek it now with Hillary Clinton far ahead in all polls and O’Malley hardly registering at all in the polls, will seek to go to the Senate. However, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Congressman Elijah Cummings, and Congresswoman Donna Edwards are likely to compete for the seat as well, with the latter two being African Americans.

The Most Women Ever As Members Of The 113th Congress!

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In the new 113th Congress, there will be an all time record of participation by women.

There will be 78 Congresswomen and 20 women Senators, for an all time high of 98.

So women will represent 98 seats, while men will have 437, still more than 80 percent of the membership.

But women will now have much more influence, including some committee chairmanships in the Senate by Democrats including Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Diane Feinstein of California, and Barbara Boxer of California, and with Maine Senator Susan Collins being the most powerful Republican woman in the minority, due to seniority.

The number of women in the Congress is likely to continue to increase dramatically in future years, and that is all to the good for the future of American democracy!