The 2018 midterm elections were game-changing on many fronts. A record number of candidates filed to run for different political positions, and approximately 39 million Americans voted early.
Congress’s makeup shifted dramatically, with Democrats winning a majority of seats in the House of Representatives and Republicans holding the majority in the Senate.
Beyond these changes, however, stand the historic elections of a diverse set of candidates, among them the first female Native American elected to Congress, the first Muslim women elected to Congress and America’s first openly gay governor.
Here’s a really short rundown of the history made on Tuesday, Nov. 4th, 2019:
- Jahana Hayes became the first black woman elected to represent Connecticut in the House. She is a former high school teacher.
- U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema not only became Arizona’s first Democratic senator in 30 years but also America’s first openly bisexual senator.
- Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York became the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress at 29 years old.
- Sharice Davids of Kansas, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo tribe, both became the first Native American women elected to Congress. Davids, an attorney and former MMA fighter, is also the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Kansas in Congress.
- Democrat Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joined Rashida Tlaib of Michigan as the first-ever Muslim women elected to Congress. Tlaib, a former refugee, is also the first Somali-American women in Congress and the first Congress member to wear a hijab.
- U.S. representative Jared Polis of Colorado will be America's first-ever openly gay male governor.
- Ayanna Pressley will become the first Black member of the House representing Massachusetts.
This isn’t even all of it. These are only a few of the candidates who helped change the path of politics in the U.S. during the midterm elections. From Tennessee electing its first female senator, to the first woman elected to the House from Iowa, it is safe to say that barriers in our country have been broken.
And let’s not forget the obvious: women are changing the face of politics across the U.S. Business Insider recently reported that a record number of women and women of color canvassed for and won key victories in the 2018 midterm elections—the Associated Press supports this with data showing more than 237 women who ran for the House as major-party candidates. This follows almost two years after the historic 2017 Women’s March , which occurred a day after the inauguration of Donald Trump.
The 2018 midterm elections produced many surprising victories, but perhaps the most game-changing of them all was that won by diversity in politics. This has seismic connotations for Americans, who, both young and old, have the ability to participate — be it through casting ballots or giving speeches at campaign rallies. No longer is the identity of the powerful politician confined to the image of the upper-middle class, older white male.
Women, Native Americans, Muslims, immigrants, millennials, and LGBTQ+ candidates —representing the true amalgam of America’s multifaceted makeup — made history with their campaigns. There are new faces in politics now, faces that continue to forge the path of diversifying American politics.
