Eleven new Congresswomen and two new female Senators were sworn into office with the 111^th Congress.

Kathy Dahlkemper (D)  – Congresswoman from Pennsylvania’s 3rd District, having beat out incumbent Congressman Phil English for the honor of representing the district. A long-time resident of Erie but a first-time campaigner, she and her husband, Dan have 5 kids.





Marcia Fudge (D) – Congresswoman from Ohio’s 11th District, filling the seat of deceased Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. She was Jones’ chief of staff and has also served as the mayor of Warrensville. She’ll also be up for a special election to fill the remainder of Jones’ term on November 18th.




Debbie Halvorson (D)  – from Illinois’ 11th Congressional district, having beaten Marty Ozinga in the race to replace retiring Republican Jerry Weller. She’s served in the Illinois state Senate since 1996. 





Lynn Jenkins (R) – Kansas’ 2nd Congressional district. Her first term in the state House left her hungry for more, so she ran for state Senate two years later. She never completed her Senate term, running (and winning) the State Treasurer’s seat in 2002. She won re-election in 2006 and then beat Jim Ryun, the incumbent that Boyda toppled in 2006, in this year’s primary.


Ann Kirkpatrick (D) – Arizona’s first Congressional district replacing retiring Congressman, Republican Rick Renzi. Born on the White Mountain Apache reservation, she spent much of her career as a prosecutor and won a set in Arizona’s House in 2004 and 2006 — a seat she resigned to pursue her interest in higher office. 


Suzanne Kosmas (D) – from the 24th district of Florida, beat Republican Congressman Tom Feeney.  Kosmas served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives until she was term limited.  She is a small business owner.

Cynthia Lummis (R) – beat out Democrat Gary Trauner in the race to replace Barbara Cubin in Wyoming’s sole Congressional district. Lummis is a statehouse veteran, having been (in 1979) the youngest woman to ever serve in Wyoming’s legislature. She served 14 years as both a House and Senate member, and then served 2 terms as State Treasurer (from 1999-2007).






Betsy Markey (D) – beat incumbent Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional district. Markey and her husband moved to Colorado from Washington D.C. in 1995, but this is her first race for federal office.


Chellie Pingree (D) – beat Charlie Summers for the right to Democrat Tom Allen’s seat in Maine’s first Congressional district.  Pingree challenged Republican Senator Susan Collins in 2002, after having served the maximum 4 terms (8 years) in the state Senate (1993-2001). After that, she was the national president and CEO of Common Cause from 2003-2007, a position she left to run for Congress.


(Alice) Dina Titus (D) – from Nevada’s 3rd district next year, having beaten incumbent Congressman Jon Porter.  She’s a PoliSci professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and has served at the state Senate minority leader since 1993 (she’s been in the Senate since being elected in 1988).

Mary Kilroy (D) –  from Ohio’s 15^th Congressional District won against Steve Stivers to replace retiring Republican Congresswoman Deborah Pryce. She’s been active in local politics for more than 15 years, but her first bid for federal office was in 2006, when she failed to unseat Pryce by barely 1,000 votes.


Former Governor Jeanne Shaheen (D) – won her re-match against incumbent New Hampshire Senator John Sununu. She previously served in the State Senate (1990-1996) and 3 terms as governor (1996-2002) before losing that year’s Senate race to Sununu. Before challenging him to a rematch, she was the director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.


Kay Hagan (D) – beat incumbent North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole. Hagan has been a state Senator since 1998, and this is her first run for federal office.