In the US midterm elections, some candidates didn’t just win on Tuesday, they also broke barriers as voters chose younger and more diverse officials for elected office.
After flipping a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, the Democrats hampered Republican hopes of controlling the upper house. This could depend on the December election in Georgia after the Senate race there advanced to a run-off.
The House looks set to flip to the Republicans but a ‘red wave’ has failed to materialise. Key seats include Iowa’s 3rd district and Colorado’s 8th.
While the governors of 36 states were renewed in the US midterm elections, Democratic candidates took over the states of Maryland and Massachusetts from the Republicans. On the other hand, Democratic voters strengthened their positions in the governorship elections, maintaining their superiority in the states of Pennsylvania, New York and Illinois.
Some candidates made history emerging victorious from a field of candidates that was in many respects more diverse than in previous years — with more women nominated for governorships and state legislatures, more Black people nominated for the Senate and more L.G.B.T.Q. people nominated for the House than ever before.
Here is a look at some of the “firsts” from the midterm elections.
First Generation Z member to win House seat
Frost, 25, is a liberal Democrat and the first member of Gen Z — which according to Pew Research Center refers to people born after 1996 — to win a seat in Congress. Frost, an activist, will represent Florida’s 10th Congressional District, a deep-blue constituency.
First time Vermont has elected a woman to Congress
Balint, a liberal Democrat, won her race to become Vermont’s lone member of the House of Representatives, the first time the state has elected a woman to Congress. Vermont is the last state to send a woman to Washington, behind Mississippi, which reached the same milestone in 2018. Balint is also the first openly gay person to represent the state.
First black governor in Maryland
Wes Moore, a Democrat and a political newcomer, will become the first Black governor in Maryland’s history. Moore will be the only Black governor in the country and the third elected since Reconstruction. Moore’s victory flips a governor’s office from Republican to Democratic.
First lesbian governor in U.S. history
Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey has been elected governor of Massachusetts, making history as the nation’s first openly lesbian governor. Healey, the state’s first woman and openly gay candidate elected to the office, defeated Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state representative who had the endorsement of former president Donald Trump.
First woman elected governor of New York, Arkansas
Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is the first woman elected governor of New York. She has held the office since last year, when she rose from the lieutenant governorship after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s resignation.
Sarah Sanders, a Republican, won her race and will become the first woman governor of Arkansas. Sanders, 40, was press secretary for President Donald Trump and is the daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Katie Britt, a Republican will become the first woman elected to the Senate from Alabama. Summer Lee, a progressive Democrat who won in Pennsylvania’s 12th District, is the first Black woman elected to Congress from her state.
First Latino elected to the Senate from California and Ilinois
Alex Padilla, 49, is the first Latino elected to the Senate from California. A Democrat and former California secretary of state, Padilla was appointed to the seat left vacant by Vice President Harris in 2021.
Delia Ramirez, a 39-year-old Democrat, will be the first Latina to represent Illinois in Congress.
Mullin, 45, a Republican member of Congress and a tribal citizen of the Cherokee Nation, won election to the U.S. Senate. He will be the first Native American senator in nearly two decades and the first Native American senator from Oklahoma in a century.
Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Global News