As Barbara Mikulski makes way, Democratic women suffer election losses

The Baltimore Sun reports:

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in Congress, has spent much of her tenure in politics encouraging other women to run for office, speaking regularly and forcefully on the value she says diversity brings to policymaking.

But the results of Tuesday's primary election have underscored the challenges confronting that effort, even in her home state: With Mikulski leaving Congress, and Rep. Donna F. Edwards coming up short in her bid to take Mikulski's place in the Senate, Maryland now faces the possibility of sending an all-male congressional delegation to Washington next year for the first time since 1971.

"That would be a disappointing moment," said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. "To kind of see that era pass would be sad," she said.

While Hillary Clinton won Maryland's Democratic primary for president Tuesday, Democratic women in the state lost primary bids in three congressional races.

The struggles of Blue America.