Bye Piggy: Women Candidates Triumph in Midterm Wave After Years of Trump’s Pounding Down
This election put 116 women in House seats, seven women in the Senate and nine new women in the governors’ mansions The post Bye Piggy: Women Candidates Triumph in Midterm Wave After Years of Trump’s Pounding Down appeared first on TheWrap .
The midterm elections of 2026 brought about a remarkable triumph for women candidates across the United States. A total of 116 women secured seats in the House, with 100 of them being Democrats and 16 Republicans. Additionally, seven women made it to the Senate, with six of them being Democrats and one Republican. Nine women also secured governorships, including six incumbents, eight who won open seats, and one who defeated an incumbent.
These victories mark historic firsts, such as Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia becoming the first Black woman governor, Deb Haaland in New Mexico becoming the first Native American woman governor, and Gina Hinojosa in Texas becoming the first Latina governor. Furthermore, Minnesota's Peggy Flanagan became the first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
This election saw an impressive reversal for women, who had faced setbacks in their rights, the rollback of DEI protections, and public indignities following the #MeToo movement and the rise of Trump 2.0. Women candidates, undeterred by these challenges, continued to fight for their goals. Some notable figures among the women candidates include Ohio's Amy Acton, who won her gubernatorial race after her opponent mocked her childhood rape; Gina Hinojosa, who brought her children to her acceptance speech and credited them for her motivation; and Annie Andrews, a Democratic Senator-elect from South Carolina, who emphasized that South Carolina's electorate had shown the nation that they would not bow down to partisan divides and special interests.
These women, along with others who did not win but performed exceptionally well, were motivated by the desire to defy the norms set by the previous administration and to assert their presence in politics. The election demonstrated that women candidates would not be deterred by the ongoing backlash against their progress and would continue to strive for a more inclusive and equitable political landscape.
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