Meet the midterm election history-makers from 2022

• Meet the midterm election history-makers from 2022.
• Both parties sought to diversify their ranks of elected people before Election Day.
• Republicans are thrilled about adding more female governors.

Candidates from both parties are already claiming historic triumphs, even though the ultimate results of the midterm election in 2022 may not be known for hours or even days in some places.

Both parties sought to diversify their ranks of elected people before Election Day, both in Congress and elsewhere, and they seem to be on course to accomplish so.

Republicans are thrilled about adding more female governors to their roster and electing more Latino representatives to the US House. Democrats are on track to achieve a milestone in the representation of LGBTQ people in governor’s offices.

Maura Healey, the Democratic state attorney general, is on track to become the first elected female governor of Massachusetts and the first openly lesbian state executive in the US. Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former press secretary for Donald Trump, has been chosen as Arkansas’ first female governor. Wes Moore, a Democrat from Maryland, will be the first Black governor of the state.

A lot of contests won’t be called for days or perhaps weeks since election results are still rolling in. Here, though, is a look at the candidates that I believe will create history in the midterm elections of 2022.

AL-SEN: Republican in Alabama Katie Britt, who won a campaign for an open seat to succeed her former employer, retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby, will become the first elected female senator from Alabama. Britt, a former CEO of the Business Council of Alabama, was the overwhelming favorite in the state’s general election. Alabama has had two female senators in the past, but both were filled-in positions.

Arkansas AR-GOV: Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders will become Arkansas’ first woman governor, taking up the post that her father previously held for more than ten years. The only daughter in US history to hold the office of governor of the same state her father formerly presided over, Sanders gained national attention for her work as press secretary in the Trump administration.

AR-LG: Republican Leslie Rutledge will become Arkansas’ first female lieutenant governor. After Sanders entered the GOP gubernatorial primary, Rutledge, the state’s attorney general, decided to run for lieutenant governor instead of the open governor’s seat. In Arkansas, lieutenant governors run on separate ballots.

With the election of Sanders and Rutledge, Arkansas will become the second state, after Massachusetts, to have a woman serving as both governor and lieutenant governor at the same time.

California CA-SEN: Democratic candidate Alex Padilla will become the state’s first elected Latino senator after winning both a special election to fill out Kamala Harris’ term and a general election for a full six-year term. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, chose Padilla, a child of Mexican immigrants, to fill the position left vacant when Harris was elected vice president.

CA-SOS: Democrat Shirley Weber will become California’s first elected Black secretary of state. The role has been held by Weber, a former state assemblywoman, since last year after Newsom chose her to succeed Padilla, who was appointed to the US Senate.

CA-AG: Democrat Rob Bonta will be the state’s first elected Filipino American attorney general. Bonta, who was born in the Philippines and came to the US as a young child with his family, has held the position since last year when Newsom chose him to succeed Xavier Becerra, who departed to take a position as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden.

CA-42: CNN predicts that Democrat Robert Garcia, who was elected to California’s 42nd Congressional District, will become the first openly LGBTQ immigrant to be elected to Congress. Garcia, the current mayor of Long Beach, emigrated from Lima, Peru, in the early 1980s at the age of 5.

Connecticut CT-SOS: Democrat Stephanie Thomas will become Connecticut’s first Black woman secretary of state. Mark Kohler, a newly appointed Democratic incumbent, will be replaced by Thomas, a Connecticut House member.

Florida FL-10: Democrat Maxwell Frost, who won the open seat for Florida’s 10th Congressional District, would become the first member of Generation Z to be elected to Congress. Those born after 1996 are referred to as Generation Z. Val Demings, a Democrat who left her position to seek for the Senate, will be replaced by Frost.

Illinois \sIL-03:After winning the election in Illinois’ newly redrew 3rd Congressional District, Democrat Delia Ramirez would become the state’s first Latina representative. The first Guatemalan American to serve in the Illinois General Assembly was Ramirez, a state legislator from the Chicago region and the daughter of immigrants from Guatemala.

Democratic governor of Maryland, Wes Moore will become the third Black person to be elected governor in US history and the first Black governor of Maryland. Republican Governor Larry Hogan will be replaced by Moore, an Army veteran and longtime nonprofit CEO. Hogan’s tenure is limited.

MD-LG: Democrat Aruna Miller will be Maryland’s first Asian American lieutenant governor. Miller, a former delegate to the Pennsylvania House of Delegates, came to the US from India as a young kid with her family. She ran for office on the same ballot as Moore.

MD-AG: Anthony Brown will be the state of Maryland’s first Black attorney general. In addition to serving as state lieutenant governor, state representative, and as a candidate for governor in 2014, Brown, who currently represents Maryland’s 5th Congressional District, has long been a mainstay in state politics.

Massachusetts MA-GOV: As it is predicted that Democrat Maura Healey, who won the open seat contest for governor of Massachusetts, would become the first out lesbian governor in US history. Healey, who is now Massachusetts’ attorney general, will lead the state as its first elected female governor.

By electing Healey and her running companion, Kim Driscoll, Massachusetts will become the first state to have a woman hold both the office of governor and lieutenant governor, joining Arkansas.

Democrat Shri Thanedar will represent Michigan’s 13th Congressional District and become the first Indian American elected to Congress from the state. Thaneder, an Indian immigrant to the US, was chosen to serve in the Michigan House in 2020 and unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018 on the Democratic ticket.

A new York
NY-GOV: Democrat Kathy Hochul will become the state’s first elected female governor after gaining a full four-year term to the position she occupied after Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned last year. Republican Lee Zeldin will be defeated by Democrat Kathleen Hochul, a former congresswoman from the Buffalo area and the state’s lieutenant governor.

Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat who will represent Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, is predicted to win a 21st term in the House and become the longest-serving woman in Congress when she takes office in 2019. Kaptur, who was first elected in 1982 and has served in the House for the longest period of any woman, will surpass Barbara Mikulski, who served Maryland in the House and Senate for a total of 40 years.

Oklahoma
OK-SEN: Republican Markwayne Mullin, who won the special election to succeed GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe, who is stepping down in January, would become the state’s first Native American senator in nearly a century. Currently serving as the state’s 2nd Congressional District representative is Mullin, a Cherokee Nation member. Oklahoma was represented in the Senate by Democrat Robert Owen, a Cherokee Nation citizen as well, from 1907 until 1925.

Pennsylvania
Democratic candidate Austin Davis, who is running with Josh Shapiro for governor, will become Pennsylvania’s first Black lieutenant governor after winning the election. Davis currently has a seat in the Pennsylvania House for the Pittsburgh region. He will run for office alongside Josh Shapiro, the Democratic contender for governor.

Summer Lee, a Democrat who was elected to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, will be the first Black woman to serve in Congress from that state. Lee, a state congressman from the Pittsburgh region, will replace retiring Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle.

Vermont
Democrat Becca Balint won the state’s at-large district election and will become the first woman from Vermont to be elected to Congress. Vermont will no longer hold the distinction of being the only US state to have never sent a woman to Congress thanks to Balint’s victory. Balint, the pro tempore president of the state Senate, will become the first openly gay person from Vermont to be elected to Congress.

VT-AG: Charity Clark will be the state of Vermont’s first female attorney general. Former Democratic Attorney General T.J. Donovan, who resigned in June to take a job in the private sector, had Clark as his chief of staff.

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