Women on ballots throughout the United States made history in last Tuesday’s midterm election as they shattered records and accomplished firsts in numerous states, including Iowa.

More than 100 women were on the Iowa ballot in the 2018 midterms, with more than 80 percent succeeding past the primaries and into the general election, the bipartisan nonprofit 50-50 in 2020 said in a statement. 

“This truly is an historic day for our state,” Executive Director Melissa Gesing said. Gesing added that women have already approached the group about running for office in 2019 and 2020.

Here’s a recap of the strides women made in Iowa and nationally:

Kim Reynolds embraces role as Iowa’s first elected female governor
Reynolds narrowly won the race for governor, beating Democratic challenger Fred Hubbell, to become the first female governor elected in Iowa, a distinction she embraced in her victory speech last Tuesday night, the Des Moines Register reported. “This is a place where a small town girl from rural Iowa, daughter of a factory worker and a farmer and a mom who chose to stay home and raise her family, could one day become the first female governor of the state of Iowa,” she said to a crowd of supporters at the Hilton Des Moines Downtown. “And now I get to say — I’m very proud to say — that I will be the first elected female governor of Iowa.” Reynolds succeeded now-Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, when he left the governor’s office for his new post.

Finkenauer, Axne become first Iowa females to serve U.S. House of Representatives
Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat from Dubuque, finished about 16,000 votes ahead of Republican 1st District Congressman Rod Blum in Tuesday’s election, Radio Iowareported. Finkenauer joins Cindy Axne, the winner in the 3rd Congressional District, to be the first women from Iowa to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. At 29, Finkenauer is also one of the youngest people ever voted into Congress.

Women make gains in the Iowa Statehouse
Women made significant gains on Tuesday, capturing a total of nine additional seats, the Des Moines Register reported. A record 45 women will serve in the upcoming legislative session — 34 in the 100-member House and 11 in the 50-member Senate. That means 30 percent of lawmakers will be women. The previous record in Iowa was 35 female legislators at any one time. That’s about 23 percent of the 150-member Legislature.

Iowa voter turnout sets record
Forget whether your candidate won or lost, for a split second, anyway, and consider instead that Iowans voted in record numbers for a midterm election. Secretary of State Paul Pate on Wednesday tweeted, “We have surpassed 1,300,000 million voters for the 2018 election, a new all-time high in Iowa for a midterm.” There were 2.17 million registered voters in the state as of Nov. 1, according to Pate’s office. 

Record number of women head to Congress
The New York Times: A record 35 new women won House seats on Tuesday, beating a previous high set in 1992, according to election results as of 8 a.m. Central on Saturday. Like the incumbents, the new members are mostly Democrats, who helped their party win the House. There will be at least 101 women in the House next year — the largest number in U.S. history. More than a dozen states will add women to their House delegations next year. 

Midterm elections see many diverse firsts
NPR: The U.S. also ushered in its first Native American and Muslim congresswomen, and its first lesbian mom in Congress. South Dakota and Maine elected their first female governors, Tennessee and Arizona sent their first women to the Senate, and Massachusetts and Connecticut elected the first black women to their House. As NPR has previously reported, record numbers of Native Americans, Muslim Americans and women, including many women of color, ran for office in 2018.