The 2024 election did not mark significant changes in women’s political representation. While women’s representation increased at the state legislative level as a result of last year’s election, there were no net gains for women in statewide elective executive and congressional offices. The number of women governors momentarily reached a record high in early 2025, only to fall back to match the count of women top state executives serving in 2024.

Congress

• Election 2024 marked the first time since 2010 that the number of women in Congress dropped as a result of a regular election. The number of women in the U.S. Congress decreased by one from Election Day 2024 to January 2025, with a net loss of one woman in the U.S. House and no change in the U.S. Senate. Women hold 28.2% of congressional seats as of April 2025.
• The number of Democratic congresswomen increased slightly in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate from Election Day 2024 to the beginning of the 119th Congress (2025-2027), while the number of Republican women decreased in the House and held steady in the Senate. A late January 2025 appointment yielded an increase of one for Republican women senators.
• Consistent with patterns before Election Day 2024, a majority of congresswomen are Democrats and women continue to be significantly better represented among Democrats than Republicans in Congress, especially in the U.S. House.
• The number of women congressional candidates – within and across both parties and chambers – dropped from 2022 to 2024. The number of women nominees was nearly equal between 2022 and 2024 in both the House and Senate, with Democratic women nominees up and Republican women nominees down from the previous cycle.
• Among all non-incumbent winners of 2024 congressional elections serving in the 119th Congress are 18 (16D, 2R) women in the U.S. House and 3 (3D) women in the U.S. Senate.
• The racial/ethnic diversity among women serving in the 119th House did not change significantly from 2024, with no new representational records for women in any single racial/ethnic group. In the U.S. Senate, two Black women – Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) – are serving simultaneously for the first time in history.
• Other significant milestones for women in Congress include the election of Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) as the first woman U.S. Representative from North Dakota and the election of Sarah McBride (D-DE) as the first transgender woman elected to Congress.

Statewide Elective Executive Office

• As a result of the 2024 election, the number of women serving as governor temporarily reached a new high of 14 (9D, 5R) from January 9, 2025 to January 21, 2025. Twelve (8D, 4R) women serve as governors as of April 2025.
• Only one new woman governor – Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) – was elected in 2024, and no incumbent women governors were up for election in 2024. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) left office as a result of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, accepting Trump’s nomination to become the secretary of Homeland Security.
• Nine (4D, 5R) non-incumbent women won statewide elective executive offices in the fall election, but they were unable to offset the loss of incumbent women officeholders due to retirement, term limits, running for another office, federal appointments, or election loss. As a result, the number of women statewide elective executive officeholders dropped from 2024 to 2025.
• In 2024, a majority of women non-incumbent winners of statewide executive offices were Republicans. Democratic women continue to outnumber Republican women as statewide elective executive candidates, nominees, and officeholders, but the partisan gap among women is smallest in these offices.
• The underrepresentation of women of color as both statewide executive candidates and officeholders persisted through the 2024 election.

State Legislatures

• Women’s state legislative representation reached a new record high as a result of the 2024 election. Women hold 33.4% of all state legislative seats as of March 2025.
• The net gain in women’s state legislative representation as a result of election 2024 was smaller than the gains resulting from elections in 2018, 2020, and 2022.
• Republican women have seen greater percentage gains in representation than Democratic women over the past three election cycles. However, Republican women remain outnumbered by Democratic women state legislators and represent a much smaller proportion of their party’s nominees and legislators than Democratic women.  
• The number of women state legislative nominees dropped slightly from election 2022 to election 2024. This is the first drop in women state legislative nominees since 2012.
• The racial and ethnic diversity among women state legislators reached a new high as a result of the 2024 election.
• In 2025, two state legislatures – in Colorado and New Mexico – became majority-woman for the first time. Both states reached majority-woman status across both chambers and within their Houses, but not in their Senates. Women maintained a majority in Nevada in 2025 legislature-wide and in both chambers. As of March 2025, women match or exceed men’s representation in seven state legislative chambers.