Electing a New U.S. Congress

On November 5, 2024, U.S. voters will cast ballots in congressional races across the country. A total of 468 seats in the U.S. Congress are up for election. 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for election as are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Senate terms are for six years. So, every two years, one third of the Senate goes through the election process. In the House, the terms are only two years and run on the same election cycle. That’s why voters in all 50 states will choose their representatives to the House this November 5.  

At the top of the ballot, Vice President Kamala Harris is making history as only the second woman to become the nominee for a major-party presidential election. However, further down the ballot, fewer women are running for Congress this time than in previous election cycles. 

Party Representation by Gender 

In 2020, during the 117^th Congress, women held the highest percentage of seats in Congress in U.S. history with 27 percent of both the House and Senate seats. In 2022, the number of women elected to the current 118^th Congress made history again with a new record of 29 percent. In the House, women currently fill 125 of the 435 seats. In the Senate, women fill 25 of the 100 seats.  

However, in this election cycle, the number of Republican women running for a House seat is down 36 percent from the last election in 2022. The number of Republican women running for a Senate seat has dropped about 45 percent, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. On the Democratic side, the decline is much smaller. The number of Democratic women running for a House seat dropped seven percent, while the number seeking a Senate seat fell nine percent from 2022.  

Of their respective parties in Congress, Democratic women make up 41 percent, while Republican women make up just 15 percent of their party. Those numbers are far below the share of women in the U.S. population. 

Reasons Women Are Not Running 

Political strategists say the sharp decline of Republican female candidates could be due to fewer competitive seats, recruitment, or the atmosphere in Congress. In the House, there are fewer opportunities for Republicans to run as challengers, which means incumbents stay in those races.  

Also, Democrats have elected more women to Congress than Republicans since the 1990s. That’s largely due to the Democratic party’s strategic effort to recruit female candidates. The Republican party and the party’s campaign donors have not placed the same focus on female candidates. Political researchers say another reason fewer women are running could be that women candidates are often motivated to enter politics with a desire to make policy changes. If there is expected to be less opportunity to shift policy in the House of Representatives, fewer women are running for office. 

What Do You Think? Is it important for the numbers of men and women in Congress to reflect the makeup of the U.S. population?  Why or why not?