Midterms full of firsts for female, Black, LGBTQ candidates

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
Associated Press

There were plenty of milestones in this year’s midterm elections. A Massachusetts Democrat is the country’s first openly lesbian candidate to be elected governor. Maryland voters elected the state’s first Black governor. And Vermont will finally send a woman to Congress after being the only state never to have done so. The number of women serving as governors will hit double digits in 2023 for the first time. At least 12 women are set to lead their states. Florida, meanwhile, is sending the first member of Gen Z to Congress, with the victory of Democrat Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old Black man with Cuban heritage.