Democrats won control of both the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, flipping seven Senate seats and dozens of House districts in results CBS News, NBC News, and CNN all independently projected as a decisive night for the party. Beyond the shift in Congressional control, the election produced an unusually dense cluster of historic firsts across races for Senate, House, governor, and mayor.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, defeated Republican businessman Rick Jackson to become Georgia’s governor, making her the first Black woman ever elected governor of a U.S. state and the first Democrat to win the office in more than two decades. Chris Pappas won reelection to the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, becoming the first openly gay man elected to the chamber.
Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands’ longtime congressional delegate, won the territory’s governorship, becoming the first woman to lead the U.S. Virgin Islands and the first Black woman elected governor of a U.S. territory, a distinct milestone from Bottoms’s win the same night. Gina Hinojosa defeated incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott in Texas, becoming the state’s first Latina governor and the first Democrat to win a Texas governor’s race since 1990.
Xavier Becerra won California’s governor’s race, becoming the first Latino elected governor of the state, and the first Latino governor of any kind since Romualdo Pacheco briefly held the office in 1875 without being elected to it. Amy Acton, a physician and former state health director, defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, becoming the first woman elected governor of the state and the first Democrat to win the office since 2006.
Abdul El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, won Michigan’s open Senate seat over Republican Mike Rogers, becoming both the first Muslim U.S. senator and the first Egyptian-American elected to the Senate. David Crowley will become Wisconsin’s first Black governor. Marsha Blackburn will become Tennessee’s first female governor.
Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, defeated Republican incumbent Darline Graham in South Carolina, becoming both the first woman elected to represent the state in the Senate and the first Democrat to win the seat since 1998.
Deb Haaland won New Mexico’s governor’s race, becoming the first Native American woman elected governor in U.S. history. Haaland previously became one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress in 2018 and later served as the first Native American Cabinet secretary under President Biden.
Aaron Ford, Nevada’s attorney general, defeated incumbent Republican Governor Joe Lombardo to become the state’s first Black governor, and the first Black governor elected anywhere west of the Mississippi River.
Juliana Stratton won Illinois’s open Senate seat, becoming the second Black woman to represent the state in the Senate. Her win also marks the first time in U.S. history that three Black women will serve in the Senate simultaneously, alongside Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, neither of whom was up for reelection this cycle.
Adrienne Adams was elected New York’s lieutenant governor alongside Governor Kathy Hochul, forming the state’s first all-woman gubernatorial ticket and making Adams the first Black woman elected to the office.
In Colorado, Melat Kiros became the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress from the state.
In Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, Dr. Jasmine Clark, a microbiologist and Emory University professor, won her race, becoming the first Black woman with a Ph.D. in a scientific field elected to Congress.
In Florida, Tiffany Moore Russell was elected Orange County mayor, becoming the first Black woman to hold the position in the county’s history.
In Washington, D.C., Janeese Lewis George was elected mayor, becoming the city’s first democratic socialist mayor and its first new mayor in 12 years, succeeding three-term Mayor Muriel Bowser.
In Kansas, Democratic Reverend Adam Hamilton defeated incumbent Senator Roger Marshall, becoming the first Democrat elected to represent Kansas in the Senate since 1932.
Nationally, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now positioned to become the first Black Speaker of the House, pending a formal vote by the incoming House Democratic caucus when the new Congress convenes in January.
Not every historic first belonged to Democrats. In West Virginia, Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito won a third consecutive term, becoming the first West Virginia Republican elected to three straight Senate terms in more than a century. Byron Donalds will become Florida’s first Black governor, succeeding term-limited Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
With Democrats now controlling both chambers of Congress heading into the back half of Trump’s presidency, this wave of historic wins adds a notable layer of representation to a Congress, a set of governorships, and several major city halls that will look meaningfully different come January than they did the day before the election.