More women than ever before in American history took oaths of office as members of the 113th Congress on Jan. 3. For the first time, a party—the Democratic Party—has more female and minority legislators than white male legislators.
“Incoming Senate members Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) are the first women elected to the Senate from their states,” according to C-Span. Sen. Hirono is the first Asian-American woman in the Senate, and the first person born in Japan to be elected to the Senate.
Re-elected House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that Congress took an oath to protect the Constitution and to protect the American people at the opening of the 113th Congress, which C-Span broadcast live.
Pelosi evoked the child victims of a December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, and she asked legislators to take action to prevent future gun violence.
She praised “proud son of Ohio” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and called for cooperation, referencing President Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, optimistic that we may be touched “by the better angels of our nature.”
The re-elected Boehner welcomed the 84 freshman members, who he said may be awestruck upon entering the historic halls, and he said that the veteran members should try to recapture their sense of awe.
“We recognize the blessing we have in governing ourselves and recognize that it requires us to give of ourselves,” he said, adding that the oath makes no mention of party. “We are here not to be something, but to do something, or as I like to call it, doing the right thing.”
