TBT: History-Making Firsts in the 2020 U.S. Election

TBT: Super Awesome People™ Currently Making History.

I’m still fixated on the (pending) results of the 2020 United States election (who isn’t?), so I’m saving my in-progress post on painter Bob Ross for later (maybe next Thursday?). Today, I decided to share the history-making winners of the 2020 U.S. elections.

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So much of recorded history comes down to who did it first—or at least who is credited as doing it first. In a Western country long-dominated by white Christian men (often at the exclusion of others who deserve credit), it’s important to herald the accomplishments of people who have broken the barriers of systemic racism and other forms of discrimination to achieve historic firsts as representatives of the people—ALL of the people.

Regardless of whether Kamala Harris becomes the first woman(!) of color(!) to serve as Vice President of the United States, there were other history-making firsts this year. Here are some of them.

• Democratic Representatives known as “The Squad” (Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib) first made history in 2018 when they were elected to Congress as the first Black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress (Pressley), the first two Muslim women elected to Congress (Tlaib and Omar) and the youngest woman elected to Congress (Ocasio-Cortez). They were all re-elected this year.
• A potential new “Squad” member, progressive Cori Bush, is set to become Missouri’s first Black woman representative in Congress.
• New Mexico became the first state to elect all women of color to the House of Representatives, with the election of Republican Yvette Herrell (the first Republican Native American elected to Congress), Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, and Democrat Debra Haaland (one of the first Native American women elected to Congress in 2018).
• In New York, Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones became the first openly gay Black members of Congress. Torres also identifies as Latino, making him the first openly gay Latino member of Congress as well.
• Former Tacoma mayor Marilyn Strickland will be the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress, as well as the first Black woman to represent Washington State at the federal level.
• Former Republican Representative Cynthia Lummis is set to become Wyoming’s first woman Senator. She’s also the first elected U.S. Senator to disclose owning the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
• At the state level, Sarah McBride will become the first openly transgender state senator, Kim Jackson and Torrey Harris are the first openly LGBTQ+ Georgia state senator and member of Tennessee’s state legislature (respectively), and Mauree Turner will be the first nonbinary state legislator and first Muslim lawmaker in Oklahoma.

Congrats to these historic “firsts” winners, and may our country’s future elected representatives continue to reflect the full diversity of the American people. (Read about other historic firsts in the 2020 U.S. elections here and here and here and here.)

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