What Went Down In The 2018 Midterms

With 22 women winning seats in the Nevada Assembly, the state has scored a female majority in the chamber — a historic first for the state. And according to New York Times reporting from June, when the new legislative class is sworn in, Nevada will be first state legislature in U.S. history to have more women than men serving.

There will be at least 18 people headed to Congress who could count as members of a science caucus — meaning they have backgrounds in STEM fields or have demonstrated support for STEM issues. (Ten of the 18 are incumbents.) And this number could grow — another five races featuring candidates with STEM backgrounds haven’t been called yet.

In general, science candidates performed better than expected. Three of the winners — Elaine Luria in the Virginia 2nd, Joe Cunningham in the South Carolina 1st and Steve Watkins in the Kansas 2nd — weren’t favored by our forecast going in. It’s worth noting, though, that this block is unlikely to all vote the same way: Two are Republicans and one is a pro-life Democrat. As a country, we still haven’t decided what it means to be a science candidate — or whether it means anything at all.