“On a night when women are winning up and down the ballot this is a historic night for us because now Nevada joins to be the fifth state with two women Senators,” Rosen said during her victory speech.

Arizona will send a woman -- either Democratic Representative Kyrsten Sinema or Republican Representative Martha McSally -- to the Senate for the first time. Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi is heading to a run-off election later this month.

Women Governors

There are now more women governors, as well. Women were newly elected in Michigan, South Dakota, New Mexico, Kansas, and Maine, bringing the total number of female state executives to nine, matching the record set in 2004. Democrat Janet Mills of Maine and Republican Kristi Noem of South Dakota are the first women elected as governor in their state.

In the House, 71 incumbent women were running for re-election, 46 were running for open seats and 120 were challenging sitting House members, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. In all, 237 were candidates for the House, including 185 Democrats and 52 Republicans.

“Nothing is more wholesome for our country, for our politics, for our campaigning than the increased participation of women in the electoral process,” Nancy Pelosi, who’s on track to be Democrats’ pick for speaker of the House, said last month on CNN.

“This is a pretty exciting time because we will increase our numbers drastically and what I want for those women, I want them to serve in the majority on the Democratic side,” said Pelosi of California. “So that’s our purpose. And they are part of our path to it.”

Tuesday’s record wins for women happened not only in congressional races but all the way down the ballot, which could later set them up to run for higher office in the future.

Pipeline Filled

“We’ve had year of the woman before. What’s different this year is the whole pipeline’s getting filled with women,” Lake said. “This could be the beginning of a decade of the woman where you have more women running and moving up because you filled the pipeline.”