A Look at the 2020 Congressional Election Results

<div> <p paraid="738692707" paraeid="{aae321b7-02be-4fc8-9844-09e5669b2e16}{166}">By: Tori Anderson Agee, Manager, Political Affairs, FMI&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <img src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/us-capitol-4450447_1280.tmb-large-350-.jpg?sfvrsn=ac36c7b9_1" data-displaymode="Thumbnail" alt="us-capitol-4450447_1280" title="us-capitol-4450447_1280" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" />Two months ago, I wrote a blog entitled &ldquo;<a href="https://www.fmi.org/blog/view/fmi-blog/2020/09/16/2020-the-year-of-the-female-candidate">2020: The Year of the Female Candidate</a>.&rdquo;&nbsp;While we are still waiting on&nbsp;a few of the&nbsp;House and Senate&nbsp;races to yield&nbsp;results &ndash;&nbsp;one thing that is certain&nbsp;- &nbsp;2020 did prove&nbsp;to be the year of the female candidate.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <h5>117th&nbsp;Congress Overview&nbsp;&nbsp;</h5> </div> <div> <p paraid="120529235" paraeid="{aae321b7-02be-4fc8-9844-09e5669b2e16}{208}">Female congressional candidates crushed records.&nbsp;There will be at least&nbsp;142 women serving in the House and at least&nbsp;seven&nbsp;women serving in the Senate.&nbsp;&nbsp;The previous House record was 102 women (set in 2019)&nbsp;comprised of&nbsp;89 Democrats and 13 Republicans.&nbsp;In&nbsp;January, we will see at least 106 Democratic women and 35 Republican women.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <h5>Too Close to Call&nbsp;&nbsp;</h5> </div> <div> <p paraid="364565444" paraeid="{aae321b7-02be-4fc8-9844-09e5669b2e16}{240}">It&rsquo;s&nbsp;not over yet &ndash; we could still&nbsp;welcome more women to the 117th&nbsp;Congress.&nbsp;There are still a handful of races that are too close to call, headed to recounts or run-offs.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="525040806" paraeid="{187a92fb-52c6-490b-9b3e-69b4f6fe19cc}{3}">Senator Kelly Loeffler (R) is currently battling it out in the special election run-off in Georgia.&nbsp;Loeffler will face Ebenezer Baptist Church Pastor,&nbsp;Raphael Warnock, in&nbsp;January.&nbsp;Loeffler is the second female Senator from Georgia &ndash; the first was Rebecca Latimer Felter who only served a symbolic one-day term in 1922.&nbsp;This is one of the two Georgia run-offs that will decide who keeps the majority&nbsp;in&nbsp;the Senate.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="1306878334" paraeid="{187a92fb-52c6-490b-9b3e-69b4f6fe19cc}{27}">Iowa&rsquo;s&nbsp;second&nbsp;Congressional&nbsp;district&nbsp;is headed to a&nbsp;recount. Two females were on the general ballot,&nbsp;Mariannette&nbsp;Miller-Meeks (R) and&nbsp;Rita Hart (D),&nbsp;in this open seat&nbsp;race.&nbsp;This&nbsp;seat&nbsp;has&nbsp;always&nbsp;been&nbsp;in&nbsp;the top&nbsp;10&nbsp;closes races in 2020.&nbsp;As of last week, only 47 votes separated the two candidates.&nbsp;We&rsquo;ll&nbsp;wait to see the results, but either way we&nbsp;will&nbsp;have another new Congresswoman&nbsp;in Washington, D.C.&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <h5>Diversity&nbsp;&nbsp;</h5> </div> <div> <p paraid="1796863527" paraeid="{187a92fb-52c6-490b-9b3e-69b4f6fe19cc}{99}">For the first time in the state&rsquo;s history,&nbsp;New Mexico has elected all women of color to the House of Representatives. Congresswoman&nbsp;Deb Haaland&nbsp;(D), and Congresswomen-elect Yvette Herrell&nbsp;(R)&nbsp;and Teresa Leger Fernandez&nbsp;(D)&nbsp;will make up the delegation.&nbsp;Haaland is a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna, Herrell is a member of the Cherokee nation, and Leger Fernandez is the first&nbsp;woman and Latina to represent the district.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="1194830579" paraeid="{187a92fb-52c6-490b-9b3e-69b4f6fe19cc}{127}">Congresswomen-elect Young Kim (R), Michelle&nbsp;Park&nbsp;Steel (R), and Marilyn Strickland (D) made history by being the first Korean American women elected to Congress.&nbsp;Kim and Steel are both from Orange County in California and Strickland will represent western Washington.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="668687745" paraeid="{187a92fb-52c6-490b-9b3e-69b4f6fe19cc}{139}">Oklahoma will be sending the first Iranian American to Congress. Congresswomen-elect Stephanie Bice (R)&nbsp;will not only be the first in Congress, but she will also be the highest-ranking Iranian American in the U.S.&nbsp;government. Bice will represent&nbsp;Oklahoma City and the surrounding suburbs.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="737154858" paraeid="{187a92fb-52c6-490b-9b3e-69b4f6fe19cc}{155}">My predictions came true -&nbsp;the&nbsp;food&nbsp;industry will have the pleasure of working with&nbsp;new, diverse&nbsp;female&nbsp;leadership&nbsp;in the 117th&nbsp;Congress.</p> </div>