In April, The New Yorker highlighted the historic number of women running for office—a wave that, even then, was striking for its diversity. Tuesday’s midterm elections saw that wave sweep over Washington. Margaret Talbot, surveying the scene, put it simply: “More women will be serving in Congress than ever before.”
For the cover of the November 19, 2018, issue, Barry Blitt nods to these fresh faces. “In all the rancor and madness of the past few weeks (hell, the past few years), it appears we’ve just lived through a nice moment,” Blitt said. For more coverage of the elections, see below.
Talbot on new diversity in the House:
Many of the winning candidates are women of color. They include the first two Native American women elected to Congress: the Democrats Deb Haaland, of New Mexico’s First District, and Sharice Davids, who defeated a four-term incumbent, Kevin Yoder, in the Third District of Kansas. Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and a former mixed-martial-arts fighter with a law degree from Cornell, will be the first L.G.B.T. person to represent Kansas in Congress. Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan’s Thirteenth District, and Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota state legislator who came to the U.S. as a twelve-year-old refugee from Somalia, will be the first Muslim women in Congress.
Eliza Griswold on the “Fab Four” in Pennsylvania:
Last night, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, four women were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. (Currently there are no women in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation.) The new congresswomen, all of them Democrats, include Susan Wild, the first female solicitor of the city of Allentown; Mary Gay Scanlon, a longtime civil-rights attorney; Chrissy Houlahan, a retired chemistry teacher and military veteran; and Madeleine Dean, a state representative. “Our election is a reflection of the fact that women have really coalesced and demanded that our voices are going to be heard,” Wild told me, by phone, on Wednesday afternoon. She was on her way to Philadelphia to meet with the other new female representatives—the women call themselves the “Fab Four”—for their first public appearance together following their victories.
And see below for a few other images on this theme:
“The March.”
“#OscarsNotSoWhite.”
“Unheard.”
Sourse: newyorker.com
