Black women notch historic wins in election year defined by potential firsts

Voters have elected two black women to serve simultaneously in the US Senate for the first time and sent an openly transgender politician to Congress.

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 a House of Representatives race, making her the first openly transgender person elevated to Congress.

The victories come in an election year defined in part by historic firsts.

“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 Centre for American Women and Politics.

“But at the same time, it reminds us that we have more work to do,” said Ms Dittmar, noting that US women overall aren’t represented equitably in elected offices and that black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, as well as Native Americans, lag behind their share of the population.

Other historic firsts in the Senate on Tuesday include New Jersey’s Andy Kim, who became the first Asian American elected to represent the state in the Senate and also the first Korean-American elected in the Senate. Republican Bernie Moreno of Ohio became the first Latino to represent the state.