6 min read
Major Takeaways
- Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in American history, winning Georgia and clearing three barriers in a single night.
- Democrats won the House and the Senate on the same night, taking full control of Congress while President Donald Trump remains in the White House.
- Juliana Stratton becomes just the sixth Black woman to serve in the Senate, Peggy Flanagan became the first Native American woman elected to the chamber, and Abdul El-Sayed became its first Muslim member.
- Two Senate races are still counting. Mississippi sits 43 votes apart, and Alaska remains open.
THE HISTORY MAKERS OF ELECTION NIGHT
Swipe or tap a dot to see all seven winners. Keisha Lance Bottoms holds the center slide, the blue dot.
The image Americans will carry from this election is a Georgia one. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, won the race for governor of Georgia on Tuesday night.
With that win, Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in the history of the United States.
Georgia had never elected a Black governor. Georgia had never elected a woman governor. Bottoms cleared every one of those bars in a single night, beating Republican Rick Jackson in one of the most watched races in the country.
Urban City Podcast spent the fall documenting heavy Black turnout across Georgia, and Tuesday showed what that turnout can build. The state at the center of the modern voting rights fight now sends a Black woman to its highest office.
Her win stood at the front of a night that rewrote the map. Congress changed hands, Senate seats flipped across the country, and barrier after barrier fell in state after state.
A Night of Firsts Across the Country
In Illinois, Juliana Stratton won the open Senate seat, beating Republican Don Tracy.
Stratton has served as lieutenant governor of Illinois since 2019 under Governor JB Pritzker. She succeeds Dick Durbin, who held the seat since 1997.
When the new term begins on January 3, 2027, Stratton becomes just the sixth Black woman to serve in the Senate. Two Black women reached the summit of American politics on the same night, one running a state and one joining the chamber that confirms judges and cabinet secretaries.
In Florida, Congressman Byron Donalds beat David Jolly and became the first Black governor in Florida history. Donalds is a Republican, and his win stands on its facts. On a night his party lost Congress, Florida voters made history with him.
In Nevada, Attorney General Aaron Ford won the race for governor in the early morning hours, becoming the first Black governor in Nevada history.
In Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan won the open Senate seat, beating Michele Tafoya. Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, became the first Native American woman elected to the United States Senate.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed beat former congressman Mike Rogers to keep the seat of retiring Senator Gary Peters in Democratic hands. El-Sayed, a physician and the son of Egyptian immigrants, becomes the first Muslim to serve in the United States Senate.
In Mississippi, Congressman Bennie Thompson won reelection in the 2nd District, a seat he has held since 1993.
Congress Changed Hands Overnight
The partisan story matched the history. Republicans went into Tuesday holding the Senate 53 to 47, the House, and the White House.
By Wednesday morning, Democrats had flipped at least seven Senate seats and taken the House. One party now runs both chambers of Congress. The other party runs the White House.
With two races still counting, the new Senate stands at 54 Democrats and 44 Republicans. The new Congress takes office in January, and the new Senate term begins on January 3, 2027.
The Senate Map and the Races Still Counting
The Senate map tells the story of the night. Democrats flipped seats in North Carolina with Roy Cooper, Texas with James Talarico, Kansas with Adam Hamilton, Iowa with Josh Turek, Ohio with Sherrod Brown, Maine with Troy Jackson, and South Carolina with Annie Andrews.
The Maine result unseated Senator Susan Collins, who had held the seat since 1997. Democrats defended their ground, with wins for Jon Ossoff in Georgia, Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, and Mark Warner in Virginia.
Two races remain unfinished. In Mississippi, Scott Colom leads Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by 43 votes, 462,821 to 462,778, with independent Ty Pinkins at 19,935 and 1,733 of 1,736 precincts reporting.
Sit with that number for a moment. A Black challenger in Mississippi holds a 43 vote lead over a sitting senator, in a state where Black voters were once beaten and killed for trying to cast a ballot.
The Mississippi race is still counting. Remaining absentee and affidavit ballots will shape the finish, and a margin this thin points toward a recount fight in the days ahead.
In Alaska, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan leads Democrat Mary Peltola by 0.8 points, with about 72 percent counted, and that race is still counting.
Urban City Podcast tracked these races all night on our Election Tracker, where the final board stays up.
What the Country Looks Like Moving Forward
So what does America look like now? Start with the machinery. President Donald Trump remains in the White House. Democrats now control both chambers of Congress.
That split sets the terms for the next two years. Congress writes the budgets and holds the power to investigate. The president holds the veto pen and runs the executive branch.
Every spending bill and every policy fight now runs through that divide. Democrats can pass bills in both chambers, but a bill becomes law only with the signature of the president, or two thirds of both chambers voting to beat a veto.
The Senate also confirms judges and cabinet officials. A Democratic Senate changes who gets confirmed for the rest of this presidential term.
For Black communities, the fights ahead are concrete. Bills on voting rights, health care, federal workers, and education that could not get a vote before can now move through both chambers. Getting them past a veto is a different fight, and that fight starts in January.
The representation story may outlast the policy fights. Black girls in Georgia watched one of their own win the office of governor for the first time in American history.
Native girls in Minnesota watched a citizen of the White Earth Nation win a Senate seat. Young people in Michigan watched a man named Abdul El-Sayed win a Senate race.
Representation alone does not write a law. But it changes who sits in the room when laws get written, and it changes what young people believe is possible for them.
Read the full picture in our roundup of the Senate winners and our report on the history makers from this morning.
The counting continues in Mississippi and Alaska. The new Congress arrives in January. And the country waking up today looks a little more like all of the people who live in it.
