On election night, Vice President Kamala Harris has the potential to make history and become the first woman, and the first woman of color, elected to the country’s highest office. While much has been said about her historic candidacy, down-ballot candidates across the country also have a chance to break barriers on election night.
In Delaware, state Sen. Sarah McBride, a Democrat and the first openly trans state senator in the U.S., could graduate to the U.S. House and become the country’s first openly transgender member of Congress. McBride easily defeated her primary opponents in September, raking in almost 80% of the vote. She is widely considered the favorite in a match-up against Republican John Whalen III, a retired police officer and former construction company owner.
If elected to Delaware’s sole House seat, McBride would replace Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, the Democratic nominee for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Blunt Rochester’s campaign also has the potential to make history. In the event that both Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic Senate nominee in neighboring Maryland, prevail at the ballot box, the next Congress will be the first in which two Black women serve in the Senate at the same time.
Only three Black women have served in the Senate in its 235-year history: Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois in the 1990s; Harris, who represented California before becoming vice president; and Laphonza Butler, who was appointed to represent California by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year to succeed the late Dianne Feinstein.
Should they both win, Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks would double the number of Black women elected to the Senate to four (because Butler was appointed, not elected, and she's not running for election this year). But to do that, Blunt Rochester must defeat Republican Eric Hansen, a businessman making his first run for public office, which she’s widely expected to do.
Alsobrooks faces a tougher race against the state’s former governor, Larry Hogan, a Republican, although recent polls show her with an edge.
The chance to be the first two Black women to serve in the Senate together hasn’t been lost on them. Blunt Rochester told The Associated Press that she and Alsobrooks already have a private text chain and refer to each other as their “sister senator to be.”
Across the country, in Washington state, another state senator could make history. Democrat Emily Randall has the chance to become the first out LGBTQ+ Latina member of Congress.
Randall entered politics in 2018, flipping a Republican-held seat. Now running in the state's 6th Congressional District, Randall would break a 91-year streak of sending only white men to fill the seat if she wins. And the odds are in her favor, as she is heavily favored to defeat fellow state Sen. Drew MacEwen, a Republican, in the left-leaning district.
Randall recently secured the endorsement of The Seattle Times editorial board. “Her desire to improve health care access and create job pathways, particularly in rural areas of her district, is a worthy endeavor in Congress,” the board wrote.
History is made every time the votes are counted and the results are tallied. Time will tell what history gets made in 2024.