The year 2020 has already been filled with major historical events, including the acquittal of President Donald Trump in an impeachment trial, the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, and the rapid spread of a global pandemic.
Now, the 2020 election fills the minds of Americans. While most of the attention has been on the presidential race, a handful of historic firsts were being made around the country in local elections.
Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones, two young progressive candidates from New York, became the first two openly gay black men elected to Congress after they were declared winners in their House races. Both of these men will replace retiring lawmakers in their district. Councilman Torres, who is only 23 years old, tweeted on Tuesday: “Tonight, we made history. It is the honor of a lifetime to represent the essential borough, the Bronx.” New York was not the only state to elect a Black candidate for Congress.
Missouri elected the state’s first black woman to Congress, Cori Bush. Bush has been a progressive community leader and a longtime ‘Black Lives Matter’ activist in her home state of Missouri. Bush is a nurse and a pastor, and after the death of Michael Brown in 2014, she became an organizer and protest leader. In an electrifying speech Bush gave on election night, she made it known that she was there for her community, “To the black women. The black girls. The nurses. Single mothers. The essential workers. This. Is. Our. Moment.”
Historic new Congress members do not stop there. Three New Mexican women won their districts, making them the first all-female congressional delegation to represent a state, and they are also women of color.
Democratic representative Deb Halaand, a member of the Pueblo Tribe, won re-election to her House seat. She also made history in 2018 as one of the first Native American woman elected to Congress. In a tweet on Tuesday night, Halaand stated, “Tonight the people of New Mexico have chosen hope over fear, love over hate, community over division.”
Democrat Teresa Legar Fernandez won the state’s 3rd Congressional District. Legar Fernandez is the first woman to hold her seat since its creation in 1983. Legar Fernandez stated in a tweet, “with this victory, I promise I will take the courageous action that this historic moment demands. Muchísimas gracias.”
Republican Yvett Herell, a member of the Cherokee nation, won her race for the state’s 2nd Congressional district, which completed the house delegation.” “It’s the honor of my life to serve #NM02,” Herell said. “My commitment to each citizen of our district is that I will serve each of them with integrity as we work together to rebuild the economy.”
Voters in Arizona, New Jersey, and South Dakota have approved ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana, and both recreational and medical use in South Dakota, CNN projects. South Dakota will become the first state ever to approve medical and recreational marijuana measures at the same time. According to John Hudak, deputy director at the Brookings Institution where he specializes in state and federal marijuana policy, the initiatives will only be the first step in the process. After voters approved the measures, he said, the state legislatures would normally have to set up regulatory structures within each state. Currently, 11 states have legalized full, adult marijuana use, including California.
