Pink wave from West
Newly elected Rosen, Sinema come to D.C., part of ‘new era’
WASHINGTON — Jacky Rosen of Nevada and
Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, were in Senate chambers Tuesday with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to usher in a new era of the “Women of the West.”
“Two new great women Democratic senators from the western part of the United States,” Schumer beamed. “So proud we’ll be working with them in January.”
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pushed to regain her speakership, noting the pink wave of women who helped her party take by control of the House.
Republicans also made gains, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., will appear Wednesday with newly minted GOP senators, including Mitt Romney, the successor to Sen. Orrin Hatch, who did not seek re-election in Utah.
Republicans improved their slim majority in the Senate but lost two seats they had bitterly defended.
Rosen dispatched incumbent Republican Dean Heller; Sinema defeated Martha Mcsally, a Republican, to become the first woman elected to the Senate in Arizona. She won the seat vacated by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-ariz.
PINK WAVE Two new great women Democratic senators from the western part of the United States.
Rosen and Sinema were high points for Democrats on election night, along with a wave of women candidates who helped flip the House.
The two new women Democratic senators took a photograph Tuesday with Schumer, D-N.Y., who dubbed them the “Women of the West.”
“I’m honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to fight for Nevada families as their next senator,” Rosen said later.
“I got into politics to make a difference, and I’m looking forward to putting Nevada’s working families first,” she said.
Rosen joins Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-nev., elected in 2016 to become the first woman to represent Nevada in the Senate and the first Latina to serve in the upper legislative chamber.
Nevada joins California, Washington, Minnesota and New Hampshire as states represented by two women in the Senate.
Women were pivotal in the Democratic takeover in the House, and Pelosi has made that a part of her pitch to reclaim the gavel she once held before Republicans took control of the House in 2010.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-nev., said the election results reflect that women were energized this year, by economic issues — like wages and