Next year’s Congress will feature the most women vet members ever

The next session of Congress will feature the most women veterans ever elected to the House and Senate, with at least eight winning races this year.

And that number could grow by one more: Iowa Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks holds a small lead in her re-election bid, with a few thousand votes left to be counted. The total is already double 2018, when only four women with military experience were among the 535 voting members of Congress.

Next year’s class includes two freshman House lawmakers: South Carolina Republican Sheri Biggs and New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Goodlander.

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Biggs is a licensed nursing home administrator and former intensive care unit nurse who joined the Air National Guard. She served as medical crew director for multiple combat missions in Afghanistan during Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

Goodlander served in the Navy Reserve for more than a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s. She also worked as counsel in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump and in the Justice Department under President Joe Biden.

Two incumbent female Senators with military backgrounds did not face a re-election campaign this year: Iowa Republican Joni Ernst and Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth.

Four incumbent House members won re-election: Democrats Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Republicans Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Jennifer Kiggans of Virginia.

Fifteen races featuring veteran candidates — including Miller-Meeks’ race — have yet to be formally decided. Already 79 veterans have won elections this cycle, joining 14 Senate incumbents who did not have races this year.

However, at least one of those incumbent veterans is likely to step down from his Senate post: Ohio Republican JD Vance, who was elected vice president on Tuesday.

Officials from the Veterans Campaign at the University of San Francisco said until those final races are decided, it is not clear if the number of lawmakers with military experience will increase or decrease next session. The 118th Congress opened in 2023 with 97 veterans among its members.

Of the 79 election winners, 53 served some or all of their time in the military after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Seth Lynn, founder of Veterans Campaign, said that group continues to grow in importance in legislative work regarding military and veterans issues.

“Post-9/11 veterans have shown a remarkable commitment to what we call their second service,” he said. “For the past decade, the percentage of freshman members with military service has consistently exceeded the overall proportion of veterans in Congress, suggesting that the number of veterans in Congress is likely to keep increasing.”