2024 Post-Election Highlights: How Women Won

The 2024 election will go down as a historical and memorable event, and not just because of the presidential race. Though we may not see a woman in the Oval Office in the near future, there are plenty of races that women did win with historic outcomes.

 

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A new record of women in statewide executive positions has been set, as 13 women will simultaneously serve as governors in 2025. The previous record was held in 2023 with 12 women governors. 

The New Mexico Legislature will have a majority of women for the first time.

Aime Wichtendahl will become Iowa’s first openly trans woman legislator. In 2015, Wichtendahl became Iowa’s first openly trans woman elected to the Hiawatha City Council.

Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware won their Senate races, doubling the number of Black women elected to the Senate from two to four. This will be the first time two Black women will serve concurrently in the Senate. Blunt Rochester will be the first female and Black senator to represent Delaware, and Alsobrooks will be Maryland’s first Black senator. 

Elizabeth Steiner became Oregon’s first woman elected state treasurer.

Emily Randall has been elected as the first openly queer-identifying person and the first openly queer Latina to represent Washington State in Congress.

Jenniffer González inches ahead in Puerto Rico’s gubernatorial election. If she wins, she would be only the third female governor in Puerto Rico’s 75-year history. González was the first female elected representative of San Juan’s Fourth District, the youngest member of the 14th Legislative Assembly, and the youngest woman ever elected to Puerto Rico’s Legislative Assembly. 

Julie Fedorchak will be the first woman to represent North Dakota in the US House. In a less fun fact, Mississippi is now the only state to have never sent a woman to the US House! C’mon, MS. 

Julie Johnson became the first openly LGBTQIA+ person elected to Congress in Texas.

Kelly Ayotte made history as the first Republican woman elected governor of New Hampshire. Back in 2004, Ayotte also became New Hampshire’s first female attorney general. 

Keturah Herron made history as the first openly LGBTQIA+ woman and the first openly LGBTQIA+ person of color in Kentucky elected to the Kentucky Senate. 

Marsha Blackburn re-secured her seat in Congress, where she is still the first and only woman Senator to represent Tennessee.

Nellie Pou becomes the first Latina to represent New Jersey in Congress. She joins Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Mikie Sherrill, making this the largest group of women New Jersey has ever sent to Congress.

Pamela Goodwine will be the first Black woman to serve on Kentucky’s Supreme Court. However, this is definitely not her first, as she was previously the first Black woman in Lexington to become a district and circuit judge. 

Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota both won re-election and will continue serving as the first Muslim women in the US Congress. 

Sarah McBride of Delaware will be the first openly transgender woman elected to the House of Representatives. McBride is no stranger to firsts, as she became the first openly transgender state senator back in 2020. 

Susie Wiles has been appointed Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff. She will be the first woman to serve in this role.

Tina Cannon will become Utah’s first woman state auditor.

Yassamin Ansari will be the first woman of Middle Eastern/North African descent to represent Arizona in the US House of Representatives. You can check out Yassamin on our climate change webinar. 

 

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We’ll continue to update this post as more results are released, but for more information on the 2024 election results and women candidates, check out CAWP’s 2024 Election Results Tracker and 2024 Filed Women Candidates Tracker.

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