First Black female governor, first Muslim senator: midterms smash a stack of barriers

The 2026 midterms will be remembered for the beating Democrats handed President Donald Trump. But the quieter earthquake was the list of firsts. By early Wednesday, voters had elected the country's first Black female governor, its first Native American female governor and senator, its first Muslim senator and its first openly gay male senator — and Democrats looked likely to install the first Black speaker of the House.

In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, beat Republican billionaire Rick Jackson to end 250 years without a Black woman running a state. She is also Georgia's first governor of color — all 83 of her predecessors were white men. "I will be a governor for everyone in this state," she told supporters.

New Mexico sent Deb Haaland to the governor's mansion, making the Laguna Pueblo citizen the first Native American woman elected governor. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a White Earth Band of Ojibwe citizen, became the first Native woman in the Senate after defeating Republican Michele Tafoya. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola — Yup'ik, and already the first Alaska Native elected to the House — could join her, with votes in her race against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan still being counted.

Michigan's Senate race was called for Democrat Abdul El-Sayed early Wednesday, making the epidemiologist the first Muslim American senator. His campaign drew national heat: Trump called him "dangerously radical" and referred to him as "Mohammed," attacks El-Sayed and his supporters denounced as Islamophobic. In New Hampshire, Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas beat Republican John E. Sununu to become the first openly gay male senator — a milestone he says he wasn't chasing.

The U.S. went from three elected Black governors in 250 years to a crowd. Maryland's Wes Moore, the only one currently in office, won reelection, while Florida Republican Byron Donalds, Wisconsin Democrat David Crowley and Nevada Democrat Aaron Ford each took their state's top job for the first time. With Bottoms in Georgia, five Black governors will serve at once. Moore calls the surge "a unique moment" — a challenge, he says, not an applause line.

Latinos claimed the highest office in two of the biggest states: Gina Hinojosa is Texas' first Latina governor after voters rejected Greg Abbott, and Xavier Becerra is California's first Latino governor since Romualdo Pacheco in 1875. Women also set a record — Democrats fielded 19 candidates for governor, up from their 2022 number, according to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics, while Republicans put up seven. Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn became her state's first female governor.