On November 8, 2016, we were one step away from electing our first female President of the United States. Instead, the outcome of Election Day proved us all wrong and shocked not only America, but the entire world that instead the Republican nominee, now President-elect Donald Trump had won the 270 needed electoral votes to win the White House. In the sadness and frustration of America who in this crucial election were fighting to keep and improve women, LGBT+, Black, Latino, Muslim, immigrant, and minorities in general's rights, the change in power from Democratic to Republican (as well as Congress now being majorly Republican post-election) is a frightening time due to the uncertainty of how this change will affect all of the political and social progress that we have made in the past eight years. However, in the light of to many of us a disappointing Presidential outcome, we have still made history by electing a historical amount of women, Latinos, and Asians into the House and Senate, making them the most diverse America has ever seen.
Even though we were not able to elect our nation's first female President, we still made history, especially for women.
1. Catherine Cortez Masto (D, Nevada) is the first Latina to be elected into the Senate.
2. Adriano Espaillat (D, New York) is the first ever Dominican-American as well as formerly undocumented immigrant elected into Congress.
3. Kamala Harris is (D, California) the first Indian-American as well as the second black female elected into the Senate.
4. Ilhan Omar (D, Minnesota) is the first Somali-American Muslim female elected as a state legislator.
5. Tammy Duckworth (D, Illinois) is the first Thai-American female elected into the Senate.
6. Pramila Jayapal (D, Washington) is the first Indian-American female elected into the U.S. House of Representatives.
7. Stephanie Murphy (D, Florida) is the first Vietnamese-American female elected into Congress.
8. Kate Brown (D, Oregon) is the first LGBT+ female elected as a state Governor.
