US midterm polls: Record number of women elected to House of Representatives

Washington, Nov 7: It perhaps wouldn't be more ironical than this. Or, was this destined to happen at a time when the womenfolk in the US faced more and more humiliation from people in power?

According to the CNN, a record number of women were projected to win seats in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, November 6. The candidates were from across the political spectrum, it was said.

Early on Wednesday, November 7, the CNN projected that 96 women would win contests for the House with 31 new members joining 65 incumbents. This will be 11 more than the previous best figure of 85, the CNN report cited Congressional Research Service information to confirm.

In the Senate too, things looked bright as the CNN projected that 11 women were set to win. Of them, two are new and would join nine incumbents.

It was also predicted that eight women would win the gubernatorial contests. Of them, five are incumbents.

In terms of the two parties, 76 of the projected women winners were from the Democratic Party while 11 from the Republican.

The midterm elections saw a number of instances of historic first in the US. While the first native American women joined the House, Tennessee elected a woman to the Senate for the first time. Also in several states, both the contestants in fray have been women, making the election of a female post-holder certain.

Two Muslim women -- a Palestinian-American and a Somali-American -- also won the congressional election this time to make history.