History was made and made again and made some more on Tuesday night, mostly thanks to a historically diverse slate of Democratic candidates.
- There has never been a Native woman in Congress before. Now, there will be two: Kansas’s Sharice Davids, a Daily Kos endorsee, and New Mexico’s Deb Haaland.
- There has never been a Muslim woman in Congress before. Now, there will be two: Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar.
- Neither Massachusetts nor Connecticut had ever sent a black woman to Congress before—until Ayanna Pressley and Jahana Hayes were elected Tuesday night.
- Rep. Jared Polis will become the first openly gay governor elected in the nation, and will be Colorado’s first Jewish governor.
- Texas elected its first Latina candidate to the House … and there are two: Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to the House, at 29. Daily Kos endorsee Lauren Underwood is not a whole lot older, at 31.
- In New York, Letitia James became the first black woman elected statewide and the first black attorney general.
- New Mexico elected its first Latina Democratic governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham.
There were some high-profile disappointments, for sure, but this election did do a lot to fulfill the promise of a Congress and a Democratic Party that look more like America.