The 2026 Midterms Changed Who Holds Power. These Are the Historic Firsts People of Color Made on Election Night
The 2026 midterm elections have marked a turning point in U.S. political history. Several media outlets projected that Democrats had taken the House, and early Wednesday estimates put the party on track for as many as 259 seats, a total the network warned might shrink as counting continues. As of Wednesday morning, The Associated Press had called 228 House races for Democrats and 139 for Republicans, with dozens still undecided. In the Senate, Democrats flipped seven Republican-held seats and now hold 54, three more than a majority, while Alaska and Mississippi remain undecided. The New York Post’s front page called it a “Blue Tsunami.”
The vote also worked as a referendum on President Donald Trump. Early exit polls put his approval at 38%, lower than any president has registered in a midterm, and about six in 10 voters said he weighed on their House vote. Trump, for his part, wrote on Truth Social that “If I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”, though he had urged supporters during the campaign to “vote like I’m on the ballot.”
Democrats are on track to win the national House vote by about 13 points, a lead neither party has posted in House races in at least 50 years.
What gives the night its weight, though, is the symbolism behind who won and where. Read race by race, the results suggest that a significant majority of the country is ready to write a different future, one less bound by the partisan lines that have divided it for a decade.
Texas Elected Its First Latina Governor, and South Texas Swung Back
Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Gov. Greg Abbott. When she takes office, she will be the first Latina to govern Texas and the first Democrat in the governor’s mansion since Ann Richards’ term ended in 1995. On the same ballot, state Rep. James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat, and together they ended a 32-year drought for Democrats in statewide races.
Talarico framed his win as a message to Elon Musk, who gave $158 million to a super PAC backing Paxton, Reuters reported. “Last night the people of Texas delivered a crystal clear message to the world’s first trillionaire: Texas is not for sale,” Talarico told CBS.
In South Texas, Democrat Bobby Pulido unseated Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in the 15th District, flipping a seat Trump had won by 18 points. “The real loser today was political extremism,” Pulido told supporters, according to the same outlet.
Across the country, roughly 70% of Hispanic voters backed Democrats, a far wider margin than the party managed with them in either 2020 or 2024.
Melissa Morales, whose group Somos PAC canvassed for Democrats, warned against reading that number too easily. “I think the shifts that we’re seeing will be framed as a return home for Latino voters, and I don’t think that’s actually happening,” she told The New Yorker. “I think the shift from the left to the right, and now back, is showing that voters feel like they don’t have a political home.”
California and Texas Will Both Be Led by Mexican American Governors
In California, Democrat Xavier Becerra will become the state’s first elected Latino governor, CNN projected. Now, the word “elected” is crucial here, because Romualdo Pacheco served as governor for most of 1875 after rising to the office from the lieutenant governor’s post rather than winning it at the ballot box.
“California and Texas, the two largest state economies in the United States, will be governed by Hispanic Democrats, both of Mexican origin. What a day,” the journalist León Krauze wrote on X, in Spanish. The journalist Jose Antonio Vargas called it a “historic night not only for Latinos in general and Mexican Americans in particular,” and reminded his followers that “there are an estimated 38–40 million people of Mexican origin or descent living in these United States.”
“Tonight, Latino voters made history. By electing two Latinos to lead as Governor of California and Texas, we are expanding what’s possible in America,” the Latino Community Foundation posted. Cost of living remained the top concern among Latino voters, led by grocery prices and followed by housing and gas, according to an early look at UnidosUS’s 2026 Midterm Election Voter Poll. Among all voters, 89% called the cost of living a major or crucial reason for their vote.
Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Path to the Georgia Governor’s Office Began in 1860
In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor of any U.S. state. “In 1860, an enslaved man named Sheppard Peek was listed among the possessions of William Peek. His value was placed at $1400,” read a passage from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the writer Philip Lewis shared on X. “More than a century and a half later, Sheppard’s great-great-granddaughter, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was elected governor of GA.”
Bottoms was one of four candidates who became their states’ first Black governors on Tuesday, along with Republican Byron Donalds in Florida, Democrat David Crowley in Wisconsin, and Democrat Aaron Ford in Nevada. Those four alone outnumber every Black governor elected before this year. “Y’all. The new Governor, Secretary of State, AND Attorney General of Georgia are all Black women,” one Threads user wrote. Another user’s post, “The birthplace of the KKK is now run by a Black woman,” drew a community note pointing out that the original Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee.
Majority-Black counties swung almost 16 points toward the Democrats running for Senate.
“This ain’t a Blue wave. It’s a BLACK WAVE,” one Threads user wrote. “Long term BLACK organizing across the South led to Black early vote numbers outpacing EVERYBODY.” In Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff won reelection, according to Northeastern Global News, and a creator posted a photo of five women in front of his campaign backdrop with the caption “The Jon Ossoff Social Creator Team.”
In Washington, Hakeem Jeffries is in line to make history as the House’s first Black speaker, CBS News reported. “This is a change election, and we understand as House Democrats that we need to deliver dramatic change,” Jeffries said. In the Senate, Juliana Stratton’s win in Illinois means that three Black women will serve in the chamber at the same time for the first time in American history, MS NOW reported, according to a Threads post that shared the report.
“There is no Chicana feminism without Black feminism,” one Threads user wrote. “Seeing Latino communities show up in this election, and watching women make history in places like Georgia and Texas, is a reminder of just how connected our struggles and our progress have always been.”
Deb Haaland, Peggy Flanagan, and a Night of Historic Firsts
New Mexico chose Deb Haaland as the first Native American woman to win a governor’s race, and Minnesota sent Peggy Flanagan to the Senate as the first Native American woman ever elected there, the BBC reported. “You just beat Donald Trump. America did too,” Flanagan told supporters.
Michigan voters made Abdul El-Sayed the country’s first Muslim senator over former Rep. Mike Rogers. “My name,” he told supporters, “is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.” New Hampshire’s Chris Pappas will be the first openly gay man to win a Senate seat. And Ohio voters chose Amy Acton over Vivek Ramaswamy, making her the first woman they have elected governor.
Democratic women will pass 100 seats in the House for the first time, according to the Democratic Women’s Caucus. “Women have borne the brunt of the Trump administration’s recklessness and Republicans’ extremist agenda, and on Tuesday they made it clear they have had enough,” said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, who chairs the caucus.
A 29-Year-Old Democratic Socialist Will Be the First Gen Z Woman in Congress
Melat Kiros, 29, a democratic socialist who ousted Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s July primary, won the 1st District and will be the first Gen Z woman to serve in Congress. “What’s intimidating is the sheer amount of knowledge that is necessary to be able to be effective in Congress, and that’s going to take time to grow and build,” she told the network.
Darializa Avila Chevalier took New York’s 13th District months after upsetting Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the primary; fellow Democratic socialists Claire Valdez in New York, Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey also won. In Florida, an X user posted that Angie Nixon had won Miami-Dade County, calling her a socialist and the county the Cuban capital of America.
Democrats carried roughly 70% of voters under 30, according to the Times estimates, and counties with many 18- to 34-year-olds moved almost 23 points to the left, the same newspaper reported. “One-third of voters aged 18-29 self-identified as democratic socialist in NBC’s exit poll — three times as many as said they consider themselves MAGA,” the socialist magazine Jacobin posted on X.
Some Democrats criticized U.S. military support for Israel as a centerpiece of their campaigns, Reuters reported, among them El-Sayed, whom The New York Times described as “an outspoken critic of Israel.” “Pro-Israel lobbies spent millions to defeat them… But Palestinians and pro-Palestine candidates won big in the U.S. midterms anyway,” AJ+ wrote in a post.
Kansas, South Carolina, and Maine Flipped, and the Gerrymanders Didn’t Hold
Kansas sent a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1932. In South Carolina, which Trump won by close to 18 points two years ago, Annie Andrews beat Republican Darline Graham, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister. Maine’s Troy Jackson, a former logger, ended Sen. Susan Collins’ nearly three decades in office. And in North Carolina, Democrat Richard Ojeda beat Rep. Richard Hudson, who runs the National Republican Congressional Committee, in a district Trump had carried by almost 16 points.
Texas, Florida, and other Republican-led states redrew their congressional maps ahead of the vote to tilt seats toward the GOP, and the party lost anyway. In Florida, Democrats held all three seats redrawn to favor Republicans, according to the same report.
In Virginia, voters approved three constitutional amendments, which protect abortion and other reproductive decisions, strike the state’s old same-sex marriage ban, and give people their voting rights back once they leave prison. “This is not a blue wave. This is a tsunami,” one Threads account wrote. Another user wrote that people were “putting their ‘I Voted’ stickers on the headstones of people who have been murdered by ICE,” and added, “A [expletive] revolution is in the air.”
Seven of the 10 most populous states will now be led by women and people of color, one Threads user pointed out, “even after the Supreme Court dismantled the Voting Rights Act.” Earlier this year, the justices allowed Alabama to use a Republican-friendly map that erased one of the state’s two majority-Black districts. And Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures won reelection there regardless.
Not Every Result Moved in the Same Direction
Arizona voters approved a ballot measure that bans transgender athletes from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity. Republicans held Senate seats in Montana and Louisiana. And Donalds’ win in Florida means one of the night’s historic firsts belongs to a Republican.
Martha Johnson, a political scientist at Northeastern University, warned against reading the results as a mandate. “I do not think we can see this as a clear victory for the Democratic Party’s policy agenda or priorities, which are themselves hard to pin down given the wide variety of candidates and messages in the party,” she told Northeastern Global News. House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that Republicans “will not be deterred by the outcome of one election,” according to CBS News. For his part, Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, told CNN that races “are won every November.”
Several winners also built coalitions across party lines. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the four Democrats who unseated Republicans in his state won with backing from Republicans, independents, and Democrats alike. In South Texas, Pulido arrived at his victory party as mariachis trailed him to the stage. “There are moments in the life of a nation when history is made in places nobody thought to look,” he said. “Tonight, one of those moments happened here in Texas.”