American voters head to the polls on Tuesday to vote in the crucial midterm elections, and a number of candidates will go down in history if they prevail in their races.
In particular, the departure of 46 members of the House of Representatives has created an opening for a new class of young and diverse candidates seeking federal office.
Two House candidates, Democrat Maxwell Frost of Florida and Republican Karoline Leavitt of New Hampshire, would become the first Gen Z members of Congress if they win their elections. Leavitt would also set a record as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress if she could defeat Democrat Chris Pappas in their hotly contested race, considered a draw. by Cook Policy Report.
In Vermont, Democrat Becca Balint is favored to win her House race, which would make her the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ politician to represent the state in Congress. If Balint wins, all 50 U.S. states will have sent at least one woman to Congress, with Vermont becoming the only outlier on that metric in 2018.
Some House races will even go down in history, regardless of which party candidate wins. In New York’s Third Congressional District, either Democrat Robert Zimmerman or Republican George Devolder-Santos will become the first openly gay person to represent Long Island in the House.
As Republicans seek to retake the House, their playbook has hinged on nominating a diverse slate of candidates in battleground districts that will likely determine control of the lower house. The strategy builds on the party’s momentum from 2020, when Republicans reversed 14 House districts where they nominated a woman or person of color.
Overall, Republicans have nominated 67 candidates of color in House races, according to the Republican National Committee in Congress. These candidates could allow the party to significantly expand its ranks of members of color, given that only 19 non-white Republicans currently sit in the House. with the Republicans strongly favored to resume the House, many of these candidates of color could join the new session of Congress in January.
Latino Republicans have done particularly well in the primary races, with several of them also set to win their general elections. The nominations of candidates like Anna Paulina Luna in Florida’s 13th congressional district and Yesli Vega in Virginia’s seventh district, which is another toss-up, led Vox to declare 2022 will be “the year of the Latin Republican”.
“Republicans have a star class of candidates who represent the diversity of our country,” NRCC chairman Tom Emmer said late last month. “These candidates are going to win on Election Day and they will live up to the American people.”
The Republicans’ strategy of nominating people of color in some key House races comes even as party members continue to make headlines for their racist comments during the campaign trail. For example, Republican Senator Tommy Tubberville of Alabama was widely denounced last month after he suggested Democrats support reparations for descendants of slaves because “they believe the people who commit the crime must.”
And while Republicans brag about the diversity of this year’s candidate class, the Democrats’ House caucus remains far more racially diverse. Fifty-eight black Democrats currently sit in the House, compared to two black Republicans incumbent. Similarly, House Republicans hope to double their number of Latino members, which now stands at seven, but 33 Latino Democrats currently sit in the lower house.
Beyond Congress, several gubernatorial candidates are eyeing the history books. Two Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Maura Healey in Massachusetts and Tina Kotek in Oregon, would become the first openly lesbian female governors in US history if they succeed on Tuesday. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary under Donald Trump, will also likely be the first woman to win the governorship of Arkansas.
Stacey Abrams had hoped to make her mark as Georgia’s first black woman to serve as governor, but incumbent Republican Brian Kemp has pulled forward in the polls. Other candidates like Oklahoma Democrat Madison Horn, who would be the first Native American woman to serve in the US Senate, also have a strong chance of winning on Tuesday.
But even if some historic candidates do not succeed, it seems certain that the halls of Congress and the mansions of governors across America will look a little different after Nov. 8.