The 2020 Presidential election has not only caused many Americans prolonged anxiety but it also widened divisions created by an already divisive presidency. Late nights spent refreshing election maps, calculating electoral vote equations, and doom-scrolling for updates on Twitter have induced exhaustion for voters anticipating the end of this political battle.
A decisive victory for former Vice President Joe Biden finally came Saturday morning, when the Associated Press called the state of Pennsylvania for Biden, making him the 46th President of the United States. The ticket included his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, who made history as the first woman, African-American and Asian-American to hold the Vice Presidential position.
Harris’ win was not the only historic victory that came this week but followed a record number of wins by Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Queer people in elections across the country. These candidates represent a new generation of progressive democratic lawmakers whose collective wins changed the image of a fractured country depicted by red and blue territories to a now more inclusive group of people of color.
The 2020 election has been filled with many firsts and these candidates are a part of a new generation helping to shape a more inclusive America.
Kamala Harris
Harris will be the first woman, African-American, and Indian-American to become vice president of the United States. Some hope that the intersectionality of her identities will help ensure the representation of marginalized communities in one of the highest elected offices. Her win is partially a result of the work of other women of color who led grassroots campaigns across the country to increase voter turnout. Harris’ victory follows a wave of other BIPOC candidates who made history as ‘firsts’ during this election season.
Mauree Turner
Mauree Turner is the first non-binary and Muslim state legislator to ever win a seat in Oklahoma’s 88th District State House. They have spent most of their life fighting for issues such as immigration rights and racial justice while building a campaign focused on criminal justice reform, access to public education, increasing minimum wage, and implementing an integrated healthcare system in Oklahoma. Turner is currently the Regional Field Director for the Campaign for Smart Justice, an ACLU campaign focusing on criminal justice reform.
Richie Torres
Richie Torres joined Mondaire Jones as the first Black gay men in Congress. He serves as a representative of the South Bronx in the U.S House of Representatives. He formally served as Chair of the Council’s Committee on Public Housing and oversaw the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)- the largest provider of affordable housing in the country. His campaign focused on affordable housing, mental health resources for the LGBTQ+ community, and the expansion of the child tax credit.
Adrian Tam
Adrian Tam is Hawaii’s first queer House representative after the defeat of a Proud Boys’ bid for the state House in a 63 percent vote victory. His campaign promised changes in education, public health and safety, a plan for environment conservation, and a continued battle against homelessness.
Cori Bush
Cori Bush is the first Black woman to represent the state of Missouri in Congress. She is a nurse and pastor whose activism began after the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson. Her campaign focuses on criminal justice, prison and immigration reform, LGBTQ and gender equality and the investment in communities for public safety, environmental justice and Medicare for all.
Sarah McBride
Sarah McBride is the nation’s first-ever transgender state senator. A Delaware native, McBride has been involved in community advocacy for most of her life, including working for former Governor Jack Markell and Attorney General Beau Biden. She fights for affordable healthcare, expansion of paid leave, passing universal pre-K, reforming the criminal justice system, and currently serves as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization.
David Ortiz
David Ortiz is both Colorado’s first openly bisexual and first disabled person elected to the state legislature. The veteran activist and descendant of Mexican immigrants defeated Republican incumbent Richard Champion with 56.6 percent of the vote. Ortiz ran on a campaign advocating for healthcare, environmental regulation, gun safety, labor rights, immigration rights and gender equity. With his win, Ortiz has become one of 14 openly bisexual legislators nationwide.
Mondaire Jones
Mondaire Jones joined Ritchie Torres as the first Black gay men in Congress. He will serve as a Democratic representative of New York’s 17th District. His platform is focused on medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage, equal access to education, LGBTQ+ equality, and the advancement of a diplomacy- first foreign policy program.
Sam Park
Sam Park was re-elected to the Georgia House of Representatives as a Democrat representing Georgia’s 101st district. In 2016, he was the first openly gay man to be elected the Georgia State Legislature and is just one of the country’s two Asian-American state Legislators. Park was raised in suburban Atlanta as the son of conservative immigrants from South Korea. He fights for equal access to healthcare, Medicaid expansion, LBTQIA+ discrimination protections, and the building of diverse coalitions in Georgia.
Sharice Davids
Sharice Davids is the first queer Native American and joins Deb Haaland, as the first Indigenous women to be elected into Congress. Davids was re-elected to Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District and is a member of the Ho-Chunk tribe, an Indigenous tribe in Wisconsin. Her campaign focused on community safety, access to good education, and affordable healthcare and believes in supporting small businesses and tax breaks for the middle class.
Tiara Mack
Tiara Mack is the first Black queer woman in Rhode Island’s legislature and won against an anti-LGBT Democratic incumbent. Mack won on a campaign based on LGBTQ rights, affordable healthcare, criminal justice, reproductive rights and voter equality. The Brown University alum has previously taught sex-ed n Providence schools and has served as a Youth Organizing Specialist for Planned Parenthood.
Taylor Small
Taylor Small is Vermont’s first openly and the nation’s fifth-ever trans legislator. As the director of health and wellness at the Pride Center of Vermont, Small has spent years promoting LGBTQ mental health services as well as protecting homeless youth. Her campaign ran on accessible housing and healthcare, raising the minimum wage, environmental consciousness, and defunding and reforming law enforcement. Her win is a historic move towards trans representation and protection.
Stephanie Byers
Stephanie Byers is the nation’s first Indigenous trans legislator and represents the 86th District of Kansas’ state house. The retired school teacher and member of the Chickasaw Nation, is Kansas’ first trans legislator. She ran on a campaign of protecting the education system, Medicaid expansion, and ending discrimination for LGBT people.
Jabari Brisport
Jabari Brisport is New York’s first queer BIPOC to be elected state senator. Brisport represents New York’s 25th district and is a Democratic socialist who ran a progressive campaign, promising to “fight to create a New York that works for all of us– not just the wealthy elite.” He is a public school teacher who is focused on criminal justice reform and the COVID-19 response.
Kim Jackson
Kim Jackson joins just few Queer Black women to serve as state senators. Jackson who’s also Georgia’s first Queer senator, is an Episcopal priest, and ran on a platform that emphasized protecting voting rights, education and criminal justice reform, and quality affordable housing.
Torrey Harris
Torrey Harris will represent District 90, joining Republican Eddie Mannis as Tennesse’s first LGBTQ legislators. Harris like Kim Jackson challenged the “lavender ceiling”-an anti-LGBTQ systemic bias and discrimination which limits professional advancement, in their respective Southern state legislatures. His campaign focused on public education, access to healthcare, human rights and equality, women’s reproductive freedom, equal job opportunities and gun reform. He serves as a member of various organizations like Rainbow PUSH Coalition, NAACP, and Friends For Life Corporation HIV/AIDS Care & Prevention Services.
Sean Patrick Maloney
Sean Patrick Maloney was re-elected to represent the 18th district of New York in the House of Representatives. In 2012 he was elected as New York’s first openly gay member of Congress. Maloney’s policy is focused on supporting veteran and military families, expanding access to healthcare, combating the opioid crisis, and protecting national security. In June 2017, he introduced a bill in the house to improve data collection on the sexual orientation and gender identity of victims and violent crimes called LGBT PRIDE Act, which was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, the Trevor Project, PFLAG, and the Gay and Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
Michele Rayner-Goolsby
Michele Rayner-Goolsby is Florida’s first Black Queer woman elected to the state legislature, representing District 70. She joins Shevrin Jones as the first openly queer legislators in Florida. The civil rights attorney’s campaign focused on housing, education and healthcare equity, criminal justice reform, and environmental justice.
Shevrin Jones
Shevrin Jones, a gay man, has served in Florida’s state house since 2012, and won his bid for the state Senate. Jones shares two distinctions with some fresh elects: he, along with Jabari Brisport, are the only openly queer Black state senators in the US. He and Michele Rayner are the first openly queer legislators in the state of Florida. Jones’ office priorities are education and criminal justice reform, as well as housing and healthcare equity, which are closely aligned with Rayner’s platform. He also supports the legalization and taxation of cannabis for recreational adult use.
Deb Haaland
Deb Haaland was re-elected into the 1st Congressional District. She made history as New Mexico elected all women of color to its house delegation, the 2nd state after Hawaii to ever do so. She is an enrolled citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna and in 2018 became one of the first Indigenous women to be elected into Congress. Haaland ran on a campaign focused on racial justice and civil rights, climate justice, healthcare and public education.