Republicans enter Congress with record number of women after putting up diverse slate of GOP candidates

Congressional Republicans set a new record early Saturday with the swearing-in of the 118th Congress. The total number of Republican women serving in the House and Senate reached a historic high.

A total of 149 women now serve in Congress with 124 serving in the House of Representatives, and 25 in the Senate. Republican women occupy 33 House seats and nine Senate seats, an increase of one seat in each body from the previous Congress for a total of 42 female GOP members.

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The previous Republican record of 41 was set last year with the election of former Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, in a special election.

The new record comes after Republicans put up the party’s most diverse slate of candidates ever in the 2022 midterm elections, including 80 female House candidates and 33 Hispanic, 28 Black, 13 Asian and three Native American candidates, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee. 

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Some of the new Republican politicians sworn in this year include Sen. Katie Britt, and representatives Jen Kiggans, Anna Paulina Luna and Harriet Hageman.
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty | Kristen Zeis for the Washington Post via Getty | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty | Michael Smith/AFP via Getty)

The election of Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., to replace retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., also helped boost Republicans to their new high.

Despite Republicans expanding the number of women representing the party on the ballot, it failed to close the gap with Democrats in terms of the number of women serving. The Democrats matched their record-high number of women serving in the House and maintained their number of women serving in the Senate.

Even though Republicans set a new record for the number of women from the party serving in Congress, the 33 House members and nine Senate members only met previous records for the number of Republican women serving in each body, respectively, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

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The chamber of the House of Representatives at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2022.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

In addition to its 42 women, the Republican conferences in the House and Senate in the 118th Congress will include five Black, 13 Hispanic, two Asian and three Native American members, making up the party’s most diverse conferences yet.

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Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Haris Alic contributed to this report.