Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time ever, two Black women were elected Tuesday to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Senate, while voters also sent the first openly transgender lawmaker to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks prevailed in their races, doubling the number of Black women ever elected to the Senate – from two to four. And Delaware voters elected Sarah McBride in an at-large House race, making her the first openly transgender person elevated to Congress.
These historic firsts were among nearly a dozen races that showed Americans choosing more diverse representation in elected offices, even as issues such as affirmative action and LGBTQ inclusion have driven some partisans farther into their ideological corners.
“Marking these milestones does two things: One, it celebrates the increasing diversity that we are seeing in women’s political representation, whether it be in a state or nationally,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.