Midterm voters elect governors and senators who break barriers

Georgia voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman governor in U.S. history on Tuesday, part of a midterm election that brought breakthroughs for Native American, Latino and Black candidates and a record number of states electing female governors.

Bottoms, a Democrat and former Atlanta mayor who advised former President Joe Biden, defeated Republican health care executive Rick Jackson. She is the first Democrat to win a Georgia governor’s race in more than two decades. In her victory speech, Bottoms told supporters: “I will never, ever, ever stop loving you. Thank you, Georgia, for electing me as your governor.”

New Mexico elected Democrat Deb Haaland as the nation’s first Native American woman governor. Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, previously served in Congress and as Biden’s interior secretary. She was the first Native American Cabinet secretary.

In Texas, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, becoming the state’s first Latina governor and its first Democratic governor in more than 30 years. Hinojosa told supporters that, growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, “no one would have imagined that one day, a little girl from the RGV would stand before you here as the next governor” of Texas. In California, former Biden health secretary Xavier Becerra defeated Republican Steve Hilton to become the state’s first elected Latino governor.

Florida and Wisconsin elected their first Black governors. Republican Byron Donalds, who had President Donald Trump’s backing, defeated Democrat David Jolly in Florida. Democrat David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, beat Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin. Al Jazeera reported that Donalds will also be the first Black Republican governor in U.S. history.

Women won other firsts in Tennessee, Minnesota and Ohio. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn defeated Democrat Jerri Green and independent candidates to become Tennessee’s first female governor. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar beat Republican Lisa Demuth to become Minnesota’s first. In Ohio, Democrat Amy Acton defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. She is poised to become the state’s first female and first Jewish governor, and will be the first Democrat to serve in the office in two decades.

NBC News reported that voters in 17 states elected female governors, setting a record, though some races remained unresolved. It projected wins for at least 10 Democratic women and three Republican women, including Blackburn and the re-elected governors of Arkansas and New Hampshire, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kelly Ayotte. The previous high for women serving as governors at one time was 14, NBC reported.

The historic results extended to the U.S. Senate. According to Al Jazeera, New Hampshire elected Chris Pappas as the country’s first openly gay senator, while Michigan elected Abdul El-Sayed as the first Muslim voted into the chamber. Al Jazeera also reported that three Black women will serve in the Senate next term for the first time: Democrats Juliana Stratton of Illinois, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland.