A Progress Postcard:

Diversity and inclusion may be out of favor as a policy these days, but voters just did some DEI of their own. The demographics of next year’s highest elected officials will still be a long way from matching the US population, but they will come closer than ever before.

Voters brought more women into high office than ever before. Next year, the US Congress, both chambers combined, will have at least 159 women, or 29.7 percent. The number could go slightly higher as votes are finalized.

The big gains are in the US House, which will have a minimum of 136 women, up from the old historic high of 127 at the start of the current Congress (two women have left office since it began). This will easily be a new record.

More than a third of states will be led by female governors next year. The current count of 14 women governors is a historic high; next year will see 17.

There are many firsts among them:

• Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the nation’s first Black woman governor.
• New Mexico’s Deb Haaland will be the first Native American woman governor.
• Gina Hinojosa will be the first Hispanic woman to be governor of Texas.

Other noteworthy barriers fell:

• Hakeem Jeffries will probably become the first Black Speaker of the US House.
• Xavier Becerra will be the first Hispanic governor of California.
• Aaron Ford will be the first Black governor of Nevada.
• Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan will be the first Muslim in the US Senate. 
• Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota will be the first Native American woman in the Senate. She may be joined by Mary Peltola of Alaska, who is slightly ahead in the unfinished Alaska count.
• Chris Pappas of New Hampshire will be the first openly gay man in the Senate.

Demographic barriers to leadership appear to be gradually eroding.

Sources: Center for American Women and Politics; Associated Press