Women candidates make history in US 2018 midterm elections

Minnesota, Michigan send first Muslim women to US Congress [Courtesy]

Women have never held more than 84 of the 435 seats in the House. By 1:30 a.m. Wednesday as the votes were still being counted, 92 had already been declared winners.

More than 100 women were projected to win seats in the House of Representatives, easily shattering the record. 

Many of the winning candidates campaigned on the need for better health care for all Americans. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds — from military veterans to teachers — and many had never run for office before. Here are some of the women winner:

First Native American women

Democrats Sharice Davis first native American women elected to Congress [Courtesy]

Democrats Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland will become the first Native American women elected to Congres.  Davids' win in Kansas against GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder was a pickup for Democrats, which projects to gain control of the House.

Haaland will replace New Mexico Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who vacated the seat to run for governor.

Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, according to their respective campaigns. Davids identifies as a lesbian, making her the first openly LGBT member of Congress from Kansas as well. She will enter Congress having previously worked as a lawyer and a former mixed martial arts fighter.

The wins also came as Native Americans brought legal action over alleged voter suppression again this cycle, with the Spirit Lake Tribe filing a complaint in October against North Dakota over a voter identification law the tribe said disenfranchised voters living on reservations.

According to the Campaign Legal Center, federal Judge Daniel Hovland denied a request last week from the tribe for an order stopping the ID requirement.

First Muslim women     

Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota first Muslim woman in Congress [Courtesy]

                                                        

Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will become the first Muslim women in Congress.

Victories for both were expected following primary victories earlier this year.

Tlaib will fill the seat formerly occupied by Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, who left office last year amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Omar will take the seat vacated by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. Ellison opted to run for Minnesota attorney general this year.

Tlaib is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and became the first Muslim female member of Michigan's state legislature a decade ago. A self-styled progressive, Tlaib is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and was arrested two years ago for disrupting a Trump speech in Detroit.

Only two other Muslims have been elected to Congress, and both are men currently in office: Ellison and Indiana Democratic Rep. Andre Carson.

Omar, in addition to being one of the first Muslim women in Congress, will also be the first Somali-American member. She came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee.

First female senator from Tennessee

Rep. Marsha Blackburn the first female senator to represent Tennessee [Courtesy]

Rep. Marsha Blackburn became the first female senator to represent Tennessee when she outlasted a challenge from former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat who looked to run against his party to win in a state President Donald Trump won by 26 percentage points in 2016.

Blackburn, a conservative lawmaker closely tied to the President, looked to nationalize the Senate race as much as possible, hoping to tap into the same conservatism that elected Trump in order to blunt some goodwill Bredesen had built up during his two terms as governor. Trump visited the state three times.

Blackburn has served in the US House since 2003.

Blackburn, a conservative lawmaker closely tied to the President, looked to nationalize the Senate race as much as possible, hoping to tap into the same conservatism that elected Trump in order to blunt some goodwill Bredesen had built up during his two terms as governor. Trump visited the state three times. Blackburn will be the first female senator to represent her state.

Democrats had hoped to pick up Tennessee as part of a narrow path to retaking the Senate.

South Dakota elects its first woman governor

Republican Kristi Noem first female governor South Dakota [Courtesy]

Republican Kristi Noem beat out Democrat Billie Sutton in the unexpectedly close South Dakota governor’s race, and she will be sworn in next year as the first woman elected to the state’s highest office.

Republicans have held the South Dakota governor’s mansion for decades — the last Democrat was elected all the way back in 1978 — but Noem will still make history in 2019 as the first female governor. After eight years in the US House, she was one of the rare high-profile Republican women seeking a promotion in a campaign year defined more by the enthusiasm of Democratic women and the proliferation of Democratic female candidates.

Sutton made a race of it, leaning into a record of public service as well as his history as a professional bronco rider, a career that left him paralyzed. He also holds right-leaning views on gun control and abortion, which helped in a solid-red state. The Democrat surged in the latter part of the year, polling neck and neck with Noem, but fell just short on Election Day.

Noem voted in favor of Obamacare repeal, punishment of so-called sanctuary cities, and the Republican tax law while serving in the US House. She campaigned on keeping taxes low (South Dakota is one of a few states with no income tax), cutting government spending, and introducing more government transparency. Republicans in the state legislature voted last year to undo an anti-corruption plan approved by voters in a ballot referendum.

The newly elected Republican opposes Medicaid expansion; South Dakota is one of 19 states to refuse the expansion, which would cover more than 40,000 of the state’s most vulnerable residents. The current Republican governor, Dennis Daugaard, has said that he supports Medicaid expansion, but the issue has gone nowhere because of opposition in the GOP-held legislature. That is likely to remain the case under Noem.

She is also a fierce abortion opponent, with an A rating from the National Right to Life movement during her time in the House. Republicans in the state recently passed a bill to require women to seek more counseling before they get an abortion.

Noem was one of the most notable Republican women seeking higher office in the midterms, an election year characterized more by a historic gender gap in favor of the Democrats. Others included Rep. Marsha Blackburn, running for Senate in Tennessee, and Rep. Martha McSally, who sought to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake in Arizona.