Ask Congresswoman-elect Ayanna Pressley what happened Tuesday night and her answer comes quickly: "Progress."
When Pressley goes to Washington in January, she will be joined by a historic number of women she says will have a diversity of perspective and life experience that will bring new issues into the spotlight.
"The issues that we address will be more robust and more fully informed," Pressley said. "I also know that it means the solutions will be much more innovative, that's been proven."
Pressley will join two other Massachusetts women in the House -- including newly elected Congresswoman Lori Trahan, who acknowledged, during her victory speech, the retiring Congresswoman Nikki Tsongas for paving the way.
"Because you took this leap 11 years ago, when there weren't 237 women running alongside you," Trahan said. "You did it all on your own."
Democratic political analyst Jesse Mermell says in our diverse country, government needs to represent the community for it to work well, including diversity of race, religion and sexual orientation.
"More and more, we are starting to see our government starting to look like the people," Mermell said. "It's a great thing."
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No one was watching the election night results more closely than Rep. Katherine Clark, Who won her own re-election bid with 76 percent of the vote. She spent the past year recruiting candidates, many of them women , around the country specifically to flip Republican seats.
"I think Donald Trump was very helpful to me in my efforts to recruit this class ... in that people really saw some of the values under attack," she said.
Clark says women tend to be collaborative and put the focus on solutions, which she says will be a welcome addition to the House debate.
