{"id":229759,"date":"2026-11-04T18:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T18:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ten-historic-firsts-the-winning-us-midterm-candidates-making-waves-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T18:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T18:57:16","slug":"ten-historic-firsts-the-winning-us-midterm-candidates-making-waves-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ten-historic-firsts-the-winning-us-midterm-candidates-making-waves-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten historic firsts: the winning US midterm candidates making waves – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

US voters elected the first black female governor and the first Muslim to the Senate on a night of history
US midterms 2026 live \u2013 latest updates<\/a>
Track live results from all 50 states<\/a>
Tell us: what do you want to know about the midterm election results?<\/a>
The US midterm elections<\/a> have ushered in a slew of historic wins, shattering racial and gender ceilings, among other barriers, for races at the state and national level.
Here are some of the ways winning candidates are making history:
Keisha Lance Bottoms<\/a>, the former Atlanta mayor, won victory over Republican billionaire Rick Jackson in the Georgia governor\u2019s race to become the first Black female governor in the country.
Bottoms had faced scrutiny over her rocky single-term tenure as mayor between 2018 and 2022, during which time violent crime surged. But on the gubernatorial campaign trail, she emphasized her ability to fight the Trump administration.
Bottoms has also made history as the first Black person and woman to occupy Georgia\u2019s top office.
Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan\u2019s highly contested Senate race, defeating Republican Mike Rogers to become the chamber\u2019s first Muslim member. His identity frequently came under attack throughout the race from both Rogers and Trump.
Xavier Becerra<\/a> has made history as the state\u2019s first elected Latino governor. Becerra broke through a crowded Democratic primary after an underwhelming start. He was widely favored to defeat Republican challenger and conservative pundit Steve Hilton, given the state\u2019s Democratic stronghold. The son of Mexican immigrants, Becerra is set to govern over a state where more than 40% of its residents identify as Latino.
Democrat Gina Hinojosa<\/a> pulled off a stunning upset, unseating the three-term governor Greg Abbott. She will be the state\u2019s first Latina governor and the first Democrat to win the office since 1990. Hinojosa\u2019s campaign gained little traction at first, as Abbott trounced her in campaign funding.
She soon became a fierce contender, touting her focus on affordability and opposition to new data centers, the latter of which made Abbott vulnerable to criticism.
Deb Haaland<\/a>, the former US interior secretary, comfortably won New Mexico\u2019s gubernatorial race.
Haaland thanked voters in a Tuesday night X post. \u201cYou chose a future where New Mexico comes first, where working families have a chance to get ahead, and where every New Mexican has a voice,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWhether you voted for me or not, I will always be your governor, too. Because this campaign was about all of us, and the future we deserve.\u201d
Haaland is a member of Laguna Pueblo.
Republican Byron Donalds<\/a> will be Florida\u2019s first Black governor, succeeding Ron DeSantis who has reached his term limit. The three-term congressman, whom Donald Trump endorsed, made affordability central to his campaign, while avoiding mention of the unpopular war with Iran and ensuing spike in oil prices.
Chris Pappas<\/a>, a New Hampshire representative, was elected to the US Senate, making him the first out gay man to serve in the chamber.
Pappas tore into Trump, Elon Musk and others who backed his opponent, John Sununu, at a victory party with his spouse, Vann Bentley, standing nearby.
\u201cThey threw money, attack ads, and outright lies at us every day for months,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cBut we beat them anyway, didn\u2019t we?\u201d
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota\u2019s lieutenant governor, is the first Native American woman to be elected to the US Senate. Flanagan is Ojibwe and a member of the White Earth Nation.
David Crowley won Wisconsin\u2019s governor race, becoming the first Black person to hold the office. Crowley\u2019s victory came against many odds: He dropped out of the race over the summer, only to rejoin at the urging of outgoing Democratic governor Tony Evers, and his Republican opponent, Tom Tiffany, greatly outspent him.
Aaron Ford, Democratic candidate, defeated Republican governor Joe Lombardo and will serve as the first Black governor in Nevada. He previously was the state\u2019s first Black Senate majority leader and attorney general.
Amy Acton, a Democrat, defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to become Ohio\u2019s first female governor. Amy Klobuchar, democrat, beat out Republican state House speaker Lisa Demuth to become the first woman to be elected as governor in Minnesota.
And Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, is the first woman to be elected as governor of Tennessee.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US voters elected the first black female governor and the first Muslim to the Senate on a night of historyUS midterms 2026 live \u2013 latest updatesTrack live results from all 50 statesTell us: what do you want to know about the midterm election results?The US midterm elections have ushered in a slew of historic wins, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}