Midterm candidates vie for historic firsts in governor and Senate races

Nearly 300 women are running for Congress

The 2026 midterm election puts one of the most diverse slates of Democratic and Republican candidates before voters in recent years. Voters on Tuesday could send to office the first Native American woman governor and Native women senators, the first Black woman governor, the first openly gay U.S. senator and the first Muslim American senator. Most of the candidates who could set records are Democrats, but Republicans could also break ground. Nearly 300 women, including incumbents, are running for the U.S. Senate and House, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Some candidates have avoided focusing on the inherent historic value of their race, gender, religion or sexual orientation, while some voting-rights advocates are celebrating how the electorate has expanded. Alexis Anderson-Reed, president and CEO of State Voices, a network of advocates for civic engagement and equity in democracy, said via email, “These firsts show how our country is changing.” She said, “For years, people of color and LGBTQ+ communities have organized, knocked on doors, talked to voters, held conversations, and done the hard work of saving our democracy,” and added, “These wins are because of them.”

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Lisa Demuth could each end a 250-year span without a Black woman having served as a state’s governor. Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, is running against Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire businessman, for governor of Georgia. A victory would make Bottoms the first Black woman governor and Georgia’s first governor of color; all 83 of Georgia’s previous governors were white men. Demuth, the former Minnesota House speaker, is running against longtime Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Minnesota will get its first female governor regardless of the outcome. Stacey Abrams is the only Black woman to have come close to winning a governor’s race, after winning the Georgia Democratic Party’s nomination in 2018 and 2022.

This midterm has been a record-breaker for women vying for state and federal offices. The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University reported that Democrats increased the number of women running for governor from their 2022 total to 19 in the current cycle, while the Republican Party has seven women running for governor this year. Like Minnesota, Tennessee will elect its first female governor, with Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Jerri Green, a Memphis city councilwoman, as the main candidates.

Democrat Deb Haaland could become the first Native American woman governor if she defeats Republican Gregg Hull, a former mayor, in New Mexico. The Laguna Pueblo citizen first broke barriers in 2018 as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. She then became the first Native American cabinet secretary, running President Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior. Charles Curtis, from the Kaw Nation, was President Herbert Hoover’s vice president.

Oklahoma is the only state to have elected a tribal citizen governor: Democrat Johnston Murray in the 1950s and current Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt. Haaland responded to a question about her various political identities in a recent Associated Press interview, saying, “I mean, somebody has to be the first,” and, “I just don’t want to be the last, right?” She said she was proud to see how Indigenous people care about representation as other Native women run. “It truly does matter,” Haaland said. “It’s not just a slogan.”

Mary Peltola, a Yup’ik Democrat, was considered a trailblazer in 2022 when she became the first Alaska Native elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. The former congresswoman is now trying to do the same in the Senate by unseating Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a progressive Democrat and citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, faces Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter. If Tafoya wins, she would be the first Republican of Latina heritage to sit in the U.S. Senate.

The election of the first Democratic Asian American woman governor could happen in Vermont with Amanda Janoo, who is half Malaysian, or Oklahoma with Cyndi Munson, a former state lawmaker of Korean descent. Former Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who is of Indian heritage, was the first Asian American female governor.

The United States could go from having only three elected Black governors in its 250-year history to gaining seven more overnight. The Associated Press projected that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the third Black governor in U.S. history and the only current Black governor, would win re-election. Moore could gain new peers if candidates won in Georgia, Minnesota, Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, South Carolina and Michigan. Moore, chair of the National Governors Association, called the presence of so many Black gubernatorial contenders “a unique moment.” He said it was not “an applause line” but a challenge to make diverse gubernatorial nominees more common.

Abdul El-Sayed could become the first Muslim American to serve in the U.S. Senate if the progressive Michigan Democrat defeats Republican Mike Rogers in a tight and contentious race. Republican attacks on El-Sayed have included President Donald Trump implying or overtly stating that the Michigan-born epidemiologist is not American and supports terrorism. Trump has called El-Sayed “dangerously radical,” “too extreme” and referred to him as “Mohammed.” El-Sayed and his supporters have denounced the attacks as Islamophobic or racist affronts to religious freedom.

Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas could become the country’s first openly gay senator if elected in New Hampshire, where he faces former Republican U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu. Pappas became the first openly gay member of Congress when he was elected in 2018. He has not dwelled on the benchmark while campaigning, saying, “I’m not running to make history,” but applauded that his sexual orientation was not a huge source of discussion among potential voters.

Nearly 300 women, including incumbents, are running for the U.S. Senate and House, according to Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics. One of them is Democrat Juliana Stratton in Illinois. If Stratton, who is Black, wins her Senate race, she and fellow Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is of Thai heritage, would make Illinois the first state represented by two female senators of color.

Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Savannah Peters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.