The 2024 election brought some historic victories for the country on Tuesday, which will see Congress welcome its first openly trans member and the Senate its first Korean American.
Here are some of the groundbreaking candidates elected on Tuesday:
It’s the first time in history two Black women will serve together in the Senate. It’s also the first time Delaware will have a female senator.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Maryland Democrat Angela Alsobrooks are projected to win their Senate races and will become the first two Black women to serve in the chamber simultaneously.
Individually, their victories are historic: Blunt Rochester is the first woman and the first Black person to win a Senate seat in Delaware, and Alsobrooks is the first Black person to win in Maryland.
“From the bottom of my heard, Delaware, thank you,” Blunt Rochester wrote on social media.
Only three other Black women have ever served in the chamber.
Andy Kim is elected as first Korean American in the Senate.
Rep. Andy Kim handily won the Senate race in New Jersey. The son of immigrants will become the first Korean American in the chamber and the third-youngest when he heads to Washington in January.
“I believe that the opposite of democracy is apathy, and, by extension, I hope that you see our campaign as a means of being the opposite of that helplessness,” he told supporters late Tuesday.
Sarah McBride elected as the first openly trans member of Congress.
Sarah McBride, a progressive who ran on issues affecting workers and families, will become the first openly trans member of Congress. Her tenure in Washington comes amid an effort by Republicans to roll back the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.
“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and health care are available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us,” she tweeted on X.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, will have its first Black mayor.
Monroe Nichols, a state representative, won his race to become the mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, defeating a longtime Tulsa county commissioner.
“If there is anyone out there who still questions if Tulsa is a place where big things are possible, if there is anybody out there who doubts you can make an impact, tonight you got your answer,” Nichols said in a victory speech, according to the Tulsa World.
“It’s been a long time coming, and tonight, we made history.”
Pamela Goodwine will be the first Black woman on the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Pamela Goodwine made history once again on Tuesday after previously becoming the first Black woman in Lexington, Kentucky, to be a district judge and the first Black woman to become a circuit judge in the state. In 2018, she became the first Black woman to serve on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
She won her election to the state Supreme Court, a victory she called an “honor,” after running a campaign based on “experience, honesty and a commitment to impartiality and the rule of law to protect and serve every citizen.”
Shomari Figures becomes just the fourth Black member sent to Congress from Alabama since Reconstruction.
Shomari Figures handily won his race for Congress, flipping a seat held previously held by Republicans after it was redrawn by a federal court.
“This journey that we are on now, this is the beginning of the work,” Figures told supporters after his victory, according to AL.com. “Today is great. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to sit here today and be elected and be put into a position to go do the work. But now we got to do the work.”