"Year Of The GOP Woman" Results

I'll be posting in the next couple of days about where I think things really stand in terms of women in Republican politics, now that we've seen this cycle play out. But for now, here are some estimates of how things went, by the numbers.

These are my best figures, for now, of the number and percentage of women among Republican elected officials at various levels, going into Tuesday's elections, and resulting from those elections. (Races that are too close to officially call I have tallied for the candidate with the leading vote total as of this writing -- and I have included Lisa Murkowski as winning re-election as US Senator from Alaska.)

US Senate

Before: 4 of 41 (9.8%)

After: 5 of 47 (10.6%)

Governors

Before: 3 of 24 (12.5%)

After: 4 of 29 (13.8%)

Before: 17 of 179 (9.5%)

After: 23 of 244 (9.4%)

State senates

Before: 118 of 890 (13.2%)

After: 136 of 1021 (13.3%)

Secretaries of State, Attorneys General & State Treasurers

Before: 4

After: 4

The percentages remained remarkably steady, despite massive turnover. For example, a full third of the coming US House Republican caucus will be newly elected freshman -- and a whopping 17 of 29 state governors.

The bottom line is that the makeup of the party's elected officials did not decrease, as I thought it might -- but it didn't increase from its pathetic existing levels.

And, because such a large chunk of Republican officeholders are now just beginning their careers, it will be virtually impossible for these percentages to change in any significant way in the near-term future. Plus, the failure to increase the percentage of women all up and down the scale means that there is no likelihood of proportionally higher upward movement down the line.

The GOP's elected officials are and will be essentially 90% male for some years to come. As I wrote above, I have some things to say about that, which I'll be sharing with you soon.