From CBS News:
By many measures, 2012 saw the most diverse electorate in history turn out to the polls. 2013, as a result, will see the most diverse U.S. Congress in history assume office.
Latino-Americans and women played a decisive role in yesterday’s election, voting by wide margins to reelect President Obama (55 percent and 71 percent, respectively, according to exit polls.) And when the 113th Congress assumes office in January, both groups will be represented in record numbers on Capitol Hill, leaving them poised to play an equally decisive role in shaping the agenda of the years ahead.
America is changing. And from the demographics of the national electorate to the makeup of Congress, the evidence is everywhere. The new Congress will include 20 female senators, up from 17 female senators today, and a staggering tenfold increase from the two female senators who held office 20 years ago. New female faces on Capitol Hill come January will include Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, who will also be the first openly gay member of the Senate, Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono, the first Asian-American woman to serve in the Senate, and Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran and triple amputee who ousted a bete-noire of liberals, Joe Walsh from Illinois’ 8th Congressional district….
And the record number of women in Congress is no accident – at a press conference the day after the election, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who helmed the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, explained, “We recruited and nominated the most Democratic women ever…I believe that is a great thing for our country.”
Article continues at CBS News
