Big Wins Beyond The Presidency: Meet The Trailblazing Women Elected To Congress
there really is still a long way to go up until the 2020 presidential election is determined. Both candidates are up against tight margins as of this writing, trading victories in key battleground states. President Donald Trump took Florida on election night, nevertheless former Vice President Joe Biden flipped Arizona, a formerly Republican-leaning state, and took Wisconsin the following morning. It’s tense, to be sure, and in moments of stress, it can be cooperative to remember the silver linings.
This Election Day proved the significance of down-ballot races, with several forward-thinking and diverse candidates making history with victories at the state level. As an example, more than 570 LGBTQ+ candidates appeared on the ballot this year, according to the
Victory Fund, and several secured their seats on Tuesday in the growing “
rainbow wave” that’s sweeping legislatures around the country. And more progressive females, in particular, will be heading to Congress, piece of a growing movement that began in 2018, as soon as over 100 girls were voted into the Residence of Representatives.
These are the girls we have chosen to resemble us, plus it will be up to them to hold whoever is elected to the Oval Office accountable. So as we wait for every vote to be counted, discover some of the big wins in back of the presidency.
Cori Bush
Cori Bush was elected to be the initial Black woman to symbolize Missouri’s first district in Congress. A nurse and single mother of two, Bush rose to prominence as a Black Lives Matter activist who organized protests in response to the killing of Mike Brown at the hands of Ferguson police in 2014. "I'm taking my own lived experience to Congress, and what so several people in my community have gone through where they have felt, you know, neglected, under-represented, just not heard," she told
Good Morning America. "I'm not going to stop being an activist just because I'll be in Congress.”
Sarah McBride
In Delaware, veteran LGBTQ+ activist and national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign
Sarah McBride became the opening transgender person to be elected to a state Senate. Yet she isn’t interested in making history. “At the end of the day, this can't be about making headlines,” she told MTV News in 2019. “It’s got to be about creating a difference in our community.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
AOC is in the residence — again! The red-lipped representative from the Bronx made waves once, at 29 years old, she became the youngest woman to be elected To the
U.S. Home of Representatives. Her embrace of democratic socialism and progressive policies have shifted the discourse in Washington, along with made her the ambition of repeated, misogynistic vitriol from Republican leaders. “Serving NY-14 and fighting for working class families in Congress has been the greatest honor, privilege, & responsibility of my life,” she wrote on
Twitter. “Thank you to the Bronx & Queens for re-electing me to the Home despite the millions spent against us, & trusting me to resemble you once more.”
Stephanie Byers
A former high school teacher from Wichita, Kansas, Stephanie Byers became the initial trans, Indigenous American to be elected to a state legislature on Tuesday. She also is the initial trans individual to hold a state office in Kansas, according to the
Advocate. “I'm a parent, I'm the grandparent, and I know the challenges that families face at this time,” Byers told
NBC News, “and that's who I'd like to be a voice for — for those families that need somebody who stands up for them.”
Ilhan Omar
Representative Ilhan Omar is a Somali-American refugee who became the opening Black Muslim woman elected to Congress in 2018. She beat out Republican Lacy Johnson despite her opponent's significant fundraising efforts and will hold onto her seat in the Minnesota Residence. “We are making a movement that sees my struggle as inherently tied to your struggle, and sees a global where all workers can be uplifted. Together,” Omar wrote on
Twitter right after her win. “Today’s vote - the results of this election - are not the end. This is just the beginning.”
Brianna Titone
Democratic representative Brianna Titone became Colorado's first trans lawmaker once she was elected in 2018. The scientist will keep her seat, winning reelection in spite of a series of
transphobic ads that tried to harm her campaign.
Sharice Davids
A member of the Wisconsin-based Ho-Chunk Country, Representative Sharice Davids became one of the initial two Indigenous females elected to Congress as soon as she won in 2018, along with because the opening openly gay congresswoman to define her state. She ran uncontested in her bid for reelection.
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