Winners Making History: Black Female Governors, Muslim Senator

A wave of "firsts" swept through the U.S. midterm elections held on November 3 (local time).

According to the Associated Press, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won the race in Georgia, securing the title of the first Black female governor in U.S. history.

Georgia has traditionally been a Republican stronghold, with all 83 previous governors being white men.

This marks the first time that both a woman and a person of color has been elected governor in Georgia.

In this political wasteland, Bottoms defeated billionaire businessman and Republican candidate Rick Jackson by a comfortable margin.

She is also the first Democratic politician to be elected governor of Georgia in 23 years.

A graduate of Georgia State University College of Law, Bottoms served a four-year term as mayor of Atlanta, the state capital of Georgia, starting in 2018.

After stepping down as mayor, she served as a senior White House adviser in the administration of President Joe Biden.


The Republican Party also produced its first Black male elected governor.

Representative Byron Donalds was elected as the first Black governor in Florida, the second home of President Donald Trump.

A former financier, Donalds is a prominent pro-Trump figure and is classified as a hardline conservative within the Republican Party.

He served in the Florida state legislature starting in 2016 before expanding his political stage by winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.

During the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle, he was also mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate.

The election also produced the first native female governor.


Democratic candidate Deb Haaland defeated her Republican opponent to claim the governorship in New Mexico.

Haaland was one of the first two Native American women to enter the House in 2018, having already shattered the political glass ceiling that had previously acted as a barrier for women of indigenous descent.

In 2021, under the Biden administration, she was appointed as the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

Her role carried special significance because the Department of the Interior oversees not only federal land and natural resource management, but also relationships and intergovernmental policies with nearly 600 federally recognized Native American tribes.

In a recent interview with the AP, Haaland said, "I just don't want to be the last," expressing her hope that more indigenous women will take on active roles in politics.


Democratic Representative Chris Pappas became the first openly gay male U.S. senator by winning election in New Hampshire.

He is also an openly gay man who was first elected as a federal representative in 2018, a first in New Hampshire's history.

Since then, he has been an active voice on human rights issues within Congress.

During the campaign, Pappas remarked, "I didn't run to make history," while positively evaluating the fact that his sexual orientation did not become a major controversy among voters.

In Illinois, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, a Democrat, defeated her Republican opponent in the Senate race.

As a result, three Black women will serve concurrently in the Senate next year, a first in Senate history.

When Stratton takes office, she will serve alongside Thai-American Senator Tammy Duckworth.

This makes Illinois the first state to be simultaneously represented by two women of color in the Senate.

The first Muslim U.S. federal senator in history was also born out of this election.

Abdul El-Sayed (41, Democrat), an Egyptian-American Muslim, won in Michigan, one of the Senate battleground states in this election.

A physician by training, El-Sayed previously served as the health commissioner for the city of Detroit and has run for governor of Michigan, positioning him as a progressive within the Democratic Party.

Although of Egyptian descent, he was born and raised in the United States and studied at the prestigious Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the University of Oxford in the UK.

Alexis Anderson-Reed, executive director of State Voices, a network advocating for civic engagement and democratic equity, welcomed the results in an email to the AP, stating, "These 'firsts' show how our country is changing."

"For years, communities of color and LGBTQ+ communities have organized, knocked on doors, talked with voters, and put in the hard work to protect democracy," she said. "These victories are thanks to them."

Additionally, former Major League Baseball star Mark Teixeira drew attention by winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in Texas.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.