Last night, equality, fairness and diversity won big: in just the Virginia House of Delegates, Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person to be elected to a statehouse in history, Kathy Tran became the first Asian-American woman elected to the Virginia House, and Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala became the first Latinas to be elected Delegates.
Around the country, the story of multicultural wins and historic firsts resounded: more than a half-dozen cities elected their first black mayor. Topeka, Kansas and Santa Barbara, California elected their first Latina mayors, while Lancaster, Pennsylvania saw it’s first Latina city council member. A Sikh Indian-American who was portrayed as a “terrorist” during the campaign was elected mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey. California, Minneapolis, Pennsylvania, and Seattle all saw transgender and gay candidates elected to positions for the first time.
And hate lost. Yesterday, we wrote about the most racist ads, mailers, and flyers distributed in the 2017 election (pollster Will Jordan did something similar) — seriously ugly materials that called Democrats terrorists, demanded that they be deported, suggested they were the candidate of murderers and gang members, and more. Guess what — not a single Republican who put out those hate ads got elected. Racial demagoguery suffered a resounding loss. Will Republicans learn that lesson in time for 2018?
View our gallery of historic first wins from last night’s election:
