Going into Election Day, this midterm featured one of the most diverse slates of both Democratic and Republican candidates in recent years. Now it is shaping up to be a wave of historic leadership firsts across the country.
Voters on Tuesday night elected the first Black female governor, the first Native American female governor and the first openly gay male U.S. senator. They could still propel into office Native women senators and the first Muslim U.S. senator, among other milestones. Most are Democrats, but the GOP has also broken some new ground.
While some of these candidates have avoided focusing on the inherent historic value of their race, gender, religion or sexual orientation, some voters' rights advocates are celebrating how the electorate has expanded.
“These firsts show how our country is changing,” Alexis Anderson-Reed, president and CEO of State Voices, a network of advocates for civic engagement and equity in democracy, said via e-mail.
“For years, people of color and LGBTQ+ communities have organized, knocked on doors, talked to voters, held conversations, and done the hard work of saving our democracy," Anderson-Reed said. "These wins are because of them.”
Here are some of the races where history could be made.
First Native American female governor
Democrat Deb Haaland can now add first Native American female governor in U.S. history to the list of barriers she has broken. Haaland was declared the winner over Republican Gregg Hull, a former mayor, to lead New Mexico.
In 2018, the Laguna Pueblo citizen was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Then she became the first Native American Cabinet secretary, running President Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior. Charles Curtis, from the Kaw Nation, was the first Native Cabinet member as President Herbert Hoover’s vice president.
Oklahoma was the only state to elect a tribal citizen for governor — Democrat Johnston Murray in the 1950s and current Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Haaland shrugged off a question about her various political identities in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
“I mean, somebody has to be the first,” she said. “I just don’t want to be the last, right?”
But she says she's proud to see how Indigenous people care about representation as other Native women run. “It truly does matter,” Haaland said. “It’s not just a slogan.”
First Native woman senators
Mary Peltola, who is Yup'ik and a Democrat, was considered a trailblazer in 2022 when she became the first Alaska Native elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Now the former congresswoman is trying to do the same in the Senate by unseating Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.
The honor could also go to Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a progressive Democrat and a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe who faces Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter.
And if Tafoya wins, she too would make history — as the first Republican of Latina heritage to sit in the U.S. Senate.
First Black female governor
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms was declared the winner Tuesday night in the Georgia governor's race, ending 250 years of U.S. history without a Black woman serving as a state's governor. The former Atlanta mayor was running against Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire businessman.
She will also be Georgia’s first governor of color. All 83 of Georgia’s previous governors have been white men.
Demuth, the former Minnesota House speaker, could also be one of the first Black female governors. She is going up against longtime Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Whatever the outcome, Minnesota will get its first female governor.
Stacey Abrams is the only Black woman to come close to winning a governor's race when she got the Georgia Democratic Party's nomination in 2018 and 2022.
First Muslim US senator
Abdul El-Sayed could be the first Muslim American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
The progressive Michigan Democrat needs to defeat Republican Mike Rogers in what has been a very tight and contentious race.
El-Sayed has had to contend with Republicans all the way up to Trump implying or overtly stating that the Michigan-born epidemiologist is not American and supports terrorism. Trump has called him “dangerously radical," “too extreme” and referred to him as “Mohammed." El-Sayed and his supporters have denounced the attacks as Islamophobic or racist affronts to religious freedom.
First openly gay male US senator
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas has won his U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire and becomes the country's first openly gay male senator. He defeated former Republican U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, who previously served in both chambers of Congress.
This new benchmark is not something Pappas has dwelled on while campaigning, saying “I’m not running to make history.” But he also applauded the fact that his sexual orientation was not a huge source of discussion among potential voters.
First Black governors
The U.S. could go from having only three elected Black governors in its 250-year history to gaining seven more overnight.
On Tuesday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the third one in the U.S. and the only current Black governor, won reelection, while Republican Byron Donalds was elected Florida's first Black governor. With Bottoms' victory in Georgia, two Deep South states will be governed by a Black leader for the first time. Besides Minnesota, the trio could have new peers in Wisconsin, Nevada, South Carolina and Michigan.
Moore, chair of the National Governors Association, has called the presence of so many Black gubernatorial contenders “a unique moment.” It's not “an applause line” but a challenge to make diverse gubernatorial nominees more common, he said.
Record year of women running for governor and Congress
This midterm has been a record-breaker for women vying for state and federal offices. Democrats increased their 2022 number of women candidates to 19 running for governor, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The Republican Party has seven women setting their sights on governor.
Like Minnesota, Tennessee will elect its first female governor. The main candidates are Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Jerri Green, a Memphis city councilwoman.
The election of the first Democratic Asian American woman as governor could happen in Vermont with Amanda Janoo, who is half Malaysian, or Oklahoma with Cyndi Munson, a former state lawmaker of Korean descent. Former Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who is of Indian heritage, was the first Asian American female governor.
Nearly 300 women, including incumbents, are running for the U.S. Senate and House, as documented by Rutgers' Center for American Women and Politics.
Among them is Democrat Juliana Stratton in Illinois, who defeated Republican Don Tracy on Tuesday. Stratton, the current lieutenant governor, will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin. With fellow Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is of Thai heritage, the pair will make Illinois the first state to be represented by two female senators of color. Stratton's win also means there will be three Black women serving in the Senate.
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Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Savannah Peters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
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