The state of Nevada on Tuesday became the first state in the United States with an overall female majority in the legislature when county officials in Las Vegas appointed two women to fill vacant positions in the state assembly.

The appointments of Democrats Rochelle Thuy Nguyen and Beatrice Angela Duran to two Las Vegas-area legislative seats gave the women 51 percent of the 63 seats in the Legislature.

Although the women hold nine of 21 seats in the state Senate which falls short of a majority in that chamber, they will hold 23 of 42 seats in the assembly which gives them enough numbers to make the two chambers an overall female majority. 

Women picked up seats in the Nevada Assembly and Senate during the 2018 November election but fell short of an overall majority but the vacancies created by lawmakers who won election to other offices in November, along with one sitting female lawmaker allowed them to gain additional seats.


According to the Centre for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University which tracks women’s political representation, no state has previously had a female-majority or even a 50 percent-female legislature.
The Centre also says that with the two Nevada appointments, women will make up 28.6 per cent of state legislators nationwide when new legislators are sworn into office in 2019.

Before 2018, New Hampshire was the first state to have a female majority in any legislative chamber when women held a majority in the New Hampshire state Senate in 2009 and 2010 . 

Nguyen, an attorney, and Duran, a grievance specialist with the state’s casino workers union and a staff member at the powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226, a key political organization in the state since 1999 will hold their seats until the next general election in 2020.