In 2012 Election, It Was Ladies' Night Across America | Record Number of Mostly Democratic Women Senators Arrive in DC
/
(L)Karim Sadli | V Magazine #80 Winter 2012 | What’s Haute This Season
(Top)Leighton Meester | Yu Tsai | Flaunt November 2012 | Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
(L)Irina Lazareanu | Max Abadian | Dress to Kill Fall 2012 | ‘Autumn Romance’
French Roast News
Anne is reading …
From left, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D) and Rep. Ann Kuster (D) will make up an all-female congressional delegation in New Hampshire.New Hampsire is the first state to send an all-female delegation to Congress: Republican senator Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen, accompanied by Democrats Rep. Carol Shea-Porter and Rep. Ann Kuster.
New Hampshire also elected Maggie Hassan as the only Democrat woman governor. The race pitted women’s and minority rights advocate Hassan against social conservative Republican Ovide Lamontagne.
In a banner night for women, Democrat Elizabeth Warren unseated Independent — usually voting Republican Scott Brown — in Massachusetts. Brown won Ted Kennedy’s seat in a special election after the senator’s death of brain cancer.
Wisconsin sent the first openly-gay woman to the Senate, Democrat Tammy Baldwin. Baldwin has been one of four openly gay House members. Baldwin defeated former Bush cabinet head Tommy Thompson. Other races with women include:
Women Winners
Claire McCaskill (D-MO) retained Senate seat against “legitimate rape” Todd Akin.
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) in Senate bid.
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) in Senate bid.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Retained Senate seat.
Deb Fischer (R-Neb) Taking Senate seat vacated by Democrat Ben Nelson.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca) re-elected to Senate.
Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn) retained her Senate seat.
Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) narrowly retained House seat.
Tammy Duckworth (D-Il) elected to House
Women Losers
Linda McMahon (R-Ct) in bid for Senate
Shelley Berkley (D-Nev) in bid for Senate
Heather Wilson (R-NM) in bid for Senate
Linda Lingle (R-Hawaii) in Senate bid
Cynthia Dill (D-Me) in Senate bid. Dill lost to popular Independent Angus King, who is expected to caucus with Democrats.
Mia Love (R-Ut) failed in her bid to become the GOP’s first black congresswoman.
Mary Bono Mack (R-Ca) lost her House seat.
Voters Speak
Mitt Romney won the white vote, 58 to 40 percent, making it the biggest lead for a Republican since 1988.
White women delivered the election to Obama. If white women had stayed in Romney’s camp, swing states in Ohio, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Virginia — although NH voters seemed determined to launch an estrogen lovefest.
Instead, Obama led among women by 12 points, nearly identical to his lead among women four years ago. For all the stories ab out white women abandoning Obama after the first debate, it didn’t happen.
Romney’s most reliant bloc the whole campaign was white men. He led by 25 points with them today. But in 1976, white men were 46 percent of voters. Today they’re at a new low, 34 percent.
In Congressional races, Elizabeth Warren beat Scott Brown, thanks to an 18-point lead among women voters. Women went for Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin by 14 points. Incumbent Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar defeated opponent Kurt Bills with a mind-boggling 44-point lead with women.
As Lauren Sandler reported at New York Magazine’s The Cut earlier this week, female leaders on the Hill tend to fight harder on issues that female voters care about. The influx of women will likely press the Senate’s Democratic majority to move left.
