The Congress members-elect will spend the next few weeks in D.C. learning the ropes, meeting their colleagues and party leadership and checking out their new office space before being officially sworn into office Jan. 3, 2019.
“We’re all ready to buckle down and get to work,” said Susan Wild, who was elected to serve Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District. Wild is one of four Democratic women elected in Pennsylvania. Before the Nov. 6 election, there were no women in the state’s delegation.
Wild said she and her colleagues are excited to be making history, both in Pennsylvania and in a Congress where a record number of women will serve. “It’s terrific. There’s tremendous energy. There’s excitement and enthusiasm,” she said.
The freshman class in the House is the most diverse in U.S. history, demographically and ideologically. With some elections still undecided, the House of Representatives added at least 35 women to its ranks, bringing the total number of women serving in Congress to nearly 100 with another 23 women in the Senate.
The new Congress will also seat a record number of combat veterans, with a total of 92 serving in the House and Senate. U.S. voters also elected more minorities, more millennials. The clash of governing ideologies will also be dramatic, with a number of new Republicans sworn in after campaigning in lockstep with President Donald Trump, Democrats who opposed the president and even a self-declared Democratic socialist.