“Year of the Woman” has become a common refrain on cable news for the 2018 election cycle and for good reason.
A record number of women ran for office this year and many of them made history with their primary victories. In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams became the country’s first black woman to win a major party nomination for governor.
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There are now 262 women on the ballot for the House and Senate in the midterm elections on November 6. Their wins could mark historic moments in states like Arizona, Tennessee, and Mississippi, which have never elected a female senator.
The list of potential firsts is even longer for minority women, who make up 35.5 percent of Democratic women nominees, according to the Center of American Women and Politics. For instance, voters will almost certainly elect the first Muslim woman to Congress: Democrat Rashida Tlaib is running unopposed for a House seat in Michigan, and Ilhan Omar, also a Democrat, is running for a House seat in Minnesota.
With women making up nearly half of Democrats running for the House, this flood of women and minority candidates could tilt the balance of Congress away from its current majority of white men.
Video edited by Daniel Card.
