Vice President Kamala Harris invited every woman serving in the U.S. Senate to dine at her home on Tuesday, marking the first gathering of its kind held by the nation’s highest-ranking woman.
All two dozen female senators ― 16 Democrats and eight Republicans ― were invited, Politico reported. The get-together took place at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory, where Harris has lived since April after a delay caused by renovations.
The White House is currently involved in negotiations with senators on its infrastructure package.
Although bipartisan dinners among female senators were once a regular occurrence, they became less frequent in 2017 after Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who started the gatherings with former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), retired from the Senate. The relationship between the women also changed amid an aggressive campaign race in 2016, sources told Politico. Those ties reportedly fragmented further during the 2020 election cycle.
Images posted by senators showed at least 20 women in attendance, including Democrats Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; and Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Joni Ernst of Iowa.
Stabenow noted that the vice president even did some cooking of her own:
According to ABC News, attendees were required to have tested negative for COVID-19.
Prior to her election, Harris served among these women as a senator for California. Many people who commented on the images said that with her departure, there were currently no Black women serving in the Senate.