Byron Donalds speaks at a rally in Tallahassee a week before Tuesday’s midterm election. Donalds made history becoming the nation’s first Black Republican elected to governor and the first Black candidate to win statewide office in Florida. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
Georgia voters elected the nation’s first Black woman governor on Tuesday while neighbors to the south in Florida became the first to elect a Black Republican governor.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the first Democrat to occupy Georgia’s top office in more than two decades. In Florida, Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds became the first Black person ever elected to statewide office there and the nation’s first elected Black Republican governor.
Those historic victories were called early during Tuesday’s high-stakes midterm elections, when Democrats hoped to claw back state power from Republicans, who have controlled a majority of governorships and state legislatures for the last 16 years.
A total of 36 gubernatorial elections were held Tuesday. As of 10:45 p.m. Eastern time, Democrats had won ten of those contested races and Republicans had secured three, according to The Associated Press.
For the first time ever, at least three Black governors will serve simultaneously in the United States, according to Tuesday’s unofficial results. Lance Bottoms and Donalds will join Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, who easily won reelection Tuesday.
Before Moore, only two other Black governors had ever been elected: Deval Patrick in Massachusetts and L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia, both Democrats.
The only Black Republican ever to serve as governor was Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, appointed to lead Louisiana during Reconstruction beginning in 1872.
Of the 36 gubernatorial elections on the ballot Tuesday, only a dozen were identified as competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, which ranks the competitiveness of state and national races. Those included Alaska, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin.
Currently, Republicans boast a 26-24 gubernatorial advantage over Democrats nationally. Aided by mounting disapproval of Republican President Donald Trump, Democrats hope to gain a national advantage for the first time since 2010.
Democrats are also aiming to flip hundreds of state legislative seats this cycle. Republicans currently boast control of 28 state legislatures and Democrats control 18, while three states have divided control of chambers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Democrat Deb Haaland will become the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as governor after the former Interior Secretary won election in New Mexico. Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna.
New Mexico will be the second state led by a Native American governor following Oklahoma, where current Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and former Gov. Johnston Murray was a member of the Chickasaw Nation.
In Texas, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa could become the nation’s third Latina governor. The Democrat leads the Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by a significant margin with 56% of the state’s votes counted, according to The Associated Press.
Only two other Latino women have ever served as governor, both in New Mexico: Current Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.
Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Louisiana Illuminator, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
