The 2026 United States midterms will go down in the history books as one of the most monumental elections.
The country experienced an enormous blue wave that swept elections nationwide, with a record number of Democratic politicians elected and now controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“Whenever I saw that blue wave, I said, ‘Yo, we’re on the come up!’” said Valerie Davis, a junior at Kennesaw State University. “This is the American Dream to me.”
Democrats will hold the majority of governorships when they are sworn in next year, after flipping at least five gubernatorial seats. 75% of Americans will have a Democratic governor, and in the 14 most populous states, Democrats will hold the governor’s office in 13, according to CNN.
Not only have many individual politicians set new precedents, but this election has also seen a record voter turnout.
Georgia saw the second-highest voter turnout rate in the state’s history since 1914, behind the 2018 midterm elections. 4,200,000 (51%) Georgians voted, placing the state 10th in the nation for most voters, with California first (13,800,000 ballots), Texas second (9,975,000 ballots), and Florida third (8,325,000 ballots).
Nationwide, 49% of eligible voters cast a ballot, or about 124 million people, according to a report by Election Lab.
Young voters also played a significant role this year, with 27% of young voters aged 18-29 casting a ballot, making this the second-highest midterm youth voter turnout since the 2018 midterm election, according to CIRCLE.
Keisha Lance Bottoms: First Black Female Governor in U.S. History
Georgia Democratic candidate and former mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms defeated Republican billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, becoming the first Black female governor in the nation’s history.
Aubrey Jordan-Yarbrough is a sophomore political science major at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and an Atlanta native. She views Bottoms as a role model, having witnessed Bottoms’ time as mayor from 2018 to 2022.
“Seeing a Black woman in that position, at least in my generation, was really inspiring,” Jordan-Yarbrough said. “I see myself in her, not only in her determination and tenacity, but how much she is passionate about not only changing things within a system that isn’t working for everybody, but wanting to make sure that everybody feels represented and safe.”
Bottoms defeated Jackson 54.3% to 45.7%. She secured 2,271,388 votes to Jackson’s 1,908,837, according to NBC News.
Republicans have held dominion over Georgia’s governor’s office since 2002, when Sonny Perdue became the first Republican elected governor since the 1870s.
Bottoms was born and raised in Atlanta, and her family tree has deep roots in Georgia. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in 1860, Bottoms’ great-great-grandfather, Sheppard Peek, an enslaved man, was listed among the possessions of enslaver William Peek in Crawfordville, Georgia. He was valued at $1,400. More than a century and a half later, Bottoms has made administrative history in the same state in which her ancestors were enslaved.
After graduation, Jordan-Yarbrough plans to become an education lawyer, pursuing education policy and hoping to bring more attention to students with disabilities and arts education. Education is similarly important to Bottoms. As governor, Bottoms promises to fully fund Georgia’s schools and modernize the education funding formula to better reflect students’ needs. Throughout her campaign, she has prioritized expanding financial literacy among Georgia students and creating paths to free technical and community colleges.
Jordan-Yarbrough intends to represent her home state of Georgia as a senator in the future.
David Crowley: First Black Governor in Wisconsin
For the first time in Wisconsin history, an African American man, David Crowley, has been elected as governor.
“For a long time, our country’s history has not been reflective of the people in it, and being able to see how diverse a lot of our representatives are now is really inspiring, and it’s actually comforting,” said Jordan-Yarbrough. “I feel like my voice, as well as the rest of the population of the U.S., was able to be more reflected, and we’re actually able to get some of the things done that we want to see change.”
Crowley won against Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany. According to NBC News, Crowley defeated Tiffany 54.1% to 45.9%. That is 1,438,721 votes for Crowley and 1,221,668 votes for Tiffany.
As governor, Crowley plans to “build a Wisconsin that works for all of us” by expanding the middle class, creating safe and affordable housing, providing accessible childcare for families, and taking climate action that creates job opportunities, among other things.
Crowley is not new to being a historical icon in Wisconsin. In May 2020, he became the youngest and first Black county executive in Milwaukee County history.
On October 8, Crowley received endorsement from former president Barack Obama.
“There is nobody better to lead Wisconsin forward, so vote David Crowley for governor,” Obama said in a video posted to YouTube.
In the past 250 years of the United States’ existence, only three African Americans have been elected governor of a state: Democrat Wes Moore, who has been governor of Maryland since 2023 and was re-elected during this year’s midterms; Democrat Deval Patrick, who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015; and Democrat Douglass Wilder, the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994.
Now, both David Crowley and Keisha Lance Bottoms are added to that list.
Abdul El-Sayed: First Muslim Senator
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Senate race, becoming the first Muslim ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Running against Republican candidate Mike Rogers, El-Sayed secured 52.5% of the state, while Rogers finished with only 45.5%. 2,507,454 Michigan voters supported El-Sayed in the midterms, while 2,172,586 people voted for Rogers, according to NBC News.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a politician in my lifetime who I look up to in the way that I do him [El-Sayed],” said Davis. “He’s so educated [and] articulate. I love his policies, and I love the way he’s able to completely just shut down whenever people are being racist.”
Unlike many other candidates, El-Sayed’s family history and religious status have been the main target of his opponents, including President Donald Trump, who has claimed that El-Sayed is affiliated with Islamic terrorist groups.
“They certainly should not give him a seat in the United States Senate,” Trump said at a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, attacking El-Sayed. “He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate. I want him to have a metal detector!”
El-Sayed was born and raised in Michigan, attended Michigan public schools, and graduated from the University of Michigan. He was raised by his father, an Egyptian immigrant, and his stepmother, whose family has lived in the state since the 1800s. Before becoming involved in politics, El-Sayed studied medicine, earning his medical degree from Columbia University and a second from Oxford University.
Jordan-Yarbrough condemns the president’s racist remarks about El-Sayed, saying that Trump’s rhetoric is not reflective of the notion that the United States is a melting pot of various religions, ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, and cultures.
“I think it’s great that we have people who represent different religions,” said Jordan-Yarbrough. “It allows people to see representation in themselves.”
As a senator, El-Sayed prioritizes immigration, wanting to “replace our broken and unpredictable immigration policy with a clear, comprehensive, and fair system.” For El-Sayed, abolishing ICE is a necessity.
“I believe that ICE funds should be repurposed to build out the legal infrastructure of courts to create a clear pathway to citizenship for those who are stuck in limbo in our current system,” El-Sayed stated on his website.
Deb Haaland: First Native American Woman Elected Governor in U.S. History
New Mexico just welcomed Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as governor.
Democratic candidate Haaland defeated Republican candidate Greggory Hull, with 57.4% of the state voting for Haaland (416,176 votes) and 42.6% for Hull (309,436 votes), according to NBC News.
“This is so deeply important to me,” said Davis about having diversity in office. “America is not all white. It hasn’t been for the entire time, actually, so to see a government that looks like its people, that truly wants to advocate for those people, that means the world to me.”
Haaland’s roots in New Mexico run deep. Her ancestors arrived in the Rio Grande Valley in the late 1200s. She is also a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, a Native American tribe in New Mexico since 1699, and is a 35th-generation New Mexican.
Haaland is not new to setting historic precedents. In 2021, she became the first Native American to serve as a U.S. Cabinet secretary after being appointed by former President Joe Biden. She additionally became one of the first Native American women elected to Congress in 2019.
Having been a single mother herself while struggling to make ends meet for her family, Haaland prioritizes affordability for New Mexicans, planning to raise the minimum wage, establish funding sources that invest in business opportunities, and ban landlords from inflating rent, among other measures, to help citizens afford the high cost of living.
Melat Kiros: First Gen Z Woman Elected to Congress
Born in May 1997, Melat Kiros, 29, will become the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress. Kiros is also the first Black woman and first Ethiopian American to represent Colorado in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I’m excited to see … how our value as a generation will be reflected finally within Congress and politics in general in the U.S., and seeing how our generation will at least turn some of the things going on right now in government around,” said Jordan-Yarbrough.
In a landslide victory, Kiros defeated her Republican opponent, Christy Peterson, with 78.3% of Colorado’s votes while Peterson managed 14.1%. That’s 238,122 ballots cast for Kiros and 42,940 for Peterson, according to NBC News.
Kiros was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and later immigrated with her family to Denver, Colorado, where she grew up. She studied Political Science and Economics at Washington College in Chestertown, MD, then earned her law degree in 2022 from the University of Notre Dame.
“As someone who’s working as a barista to pay for school and healthcare, I know what it’s like to work so hard to get ahead,” Kiros said in her campaign video. “I’ll take the fight to Trump and anyone who stands in our way.”
In the Democratic primaries in June, Kiros defeated 15-term incumbent Diana DeGette, who had been in Congress since the year Kiros was born. In office, Kiros plans to raise the minimum wage, establish universal healthcare, remove “big money” from politics, and put money back in the pockets of working-class citizens.
“We’re definitely moving towards a more progressive line, and I’m happy to see it,” said Davis. “The pendulum is swinging back from the Republican ways because people are sick of Republican policies.”
