Record number of women elected to the House

As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected 96 women would win House races, with 31 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. That bests the previous record of 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service.

On the Senate side, CNN projected by early Wednesday that 11 women would win Senate seats, with two newly elected women joining nine female incumbents.

CNN projected at the same time that eight women -- five incumbents and three non-incumbents -- would win gubernatorial races.

The numbers in each category tilted largely to Democrats, with 76 of the projected female House winners coming from the Democratic Party and 11 from the Republican side.

A tally from the Congressional Research Service said the previous record of 85 representatives served in the 114th Congress,, including two members who resigned and one who was elected to fill a vacancy. A previous tally from Rutgers' Center for American Woman and Politics had the current record total of women in the House at 84 and the overall total including the Senate at 107.

The 96 House members projected as of Wednesday morning would clear either total for that chamber, while the Senate side had mixed results by gender. A projected win for Tennessee Republican Senator-elect Marsha Blackburn came the same night as the projected loss for North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. Additionally, Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill was projected to lose her re-election bid, and Nevada Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen was projected to unseat Republican Sen. Dean Heller.

Arizona is poised to elect its first female senator no matter what party wins.

The historic totals capped off a campaign season in the wake of President Donald Trump's election that was defined in large part by female activism.

A CNN analysis at the outset of the general election noted 256 women won House and Senate primaries -- a record level that paved the way for Tuesday's victories.

As with the initial projected totals, those primary wins by females tilted largely towards Democrats. Fifty-nine of the candidates were Republican, and 197 were Democrats.

The midterm elections saw women securing historic firsts around the country, from the first Native American women to join the House of Representatives to Tennessee electing a woman to the Senate for the first time. And in several cases, the result was preordained one way or another because both major party candidates in a given race were women, as in the Arizona Senate contest.

A CNN analysis found 32 such two-women contests around the country.

CNN's Annie Grayer and Adam Levy contributed to this report.

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