Black candidates from both parties made history in midterm elections
Four months after America celebrated 250 years of independence, voters are projected to make history again, electing Black governors in states that have never done so.
With votes still being counted, ABC News projects that Democrats Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, David Crowley in Wisconsin and Aaron Ford in Nevada, along with Republican Byron Donalds in Florida, will win their races.
The victories came at a time when Black Americans already hold some of the most influential positions in Washington: with Democrats projected to take control of the House, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is poised to be the first Black speaker of the House, where enslaved Black Americans helped construct the U.S. Capitol more than two centuries ago; Republican Tim Scott is the longest-serving Black senator in American history; and the country has elected both a Black president and a Black woman as vice president.
Yet before Tuesday, only three Black Americans had ever been elected governor of a U.S. state.
With his 2022 election, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore followed Virginia's L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 and Massachusetts' Deval Patrick in 2006. Moore is projected by ABC News to win reelection.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Democratic Delegate Stacey Plaskett is projected to win the governor's race and become the territory's first woman chief executive.
After their inauguration next year, Black governors will represent 10% of the nation's chief state executives for the first time in history.
Other Black politicians have been governor without winning an election, including Louisiana's P.B.S. Pinchback during Reconstruction and New York's David Paterson, who succeeded Eliot Spitzer after his resignation in 2008.
In Georgia, one of the original Confederate states, Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, will be the country's first Black woman elected governor, in addition to being Georgia's first Black and first woman governor.
Bottoms, who has deep roots in Georgia, is descended from enslaved people. Her projected victory follows two unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns by fellow Democrat Stacey Abrams, who sought the office in 2018 and 2022.
In Florida, Donalds, a Republican congressman who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, will be the country's first Black Republican elected as governor.
Milwaukee County Executive Crowley will be Wisconsin's first Black governor in its 178-year history.
Ford, Nevada's attorney general, would hold the distinction of being the first Black person to have been elected governor west of the Mississippi River. Ford previously made history as Nevada’s first Black AG and state Senate majority leader.
The victories span two political parties, several regions and candidates with vastly different political views. Despite those differences, the victories share a historical distinction that few have ever held in the country's semiquincentennial.
And the historic firsts extended beyond governors' races.
With Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's projected re-election, running mate and former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams would become the state's first Black woman elected lieutenant governor.
In Oklahoma, Republican T.W. Shannon is projected to win his race for lieutenant governor. Shannon, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, also made history as Oklahoma's first Black and Chickasaw House speaker.
In another historic milestone reaching back 150 years, ABC News projects South Carolina state Sen. Mike Reichenbach is set to become the state's first Black lieutenant governor since 1876.
The last two Black men to serve as lieutenant governor were Republicans Alonzo J. Ransier, who served from 1870 to 1872, and Richard Howell Gleaves, who served from 1872 to 1876.
In Pennsylvania, Austin Davis, the state's first Black lieutenant governor, is projected to serve a second term with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The Senate is also set to make a historic change when the new Congress convenes.
In Illinois, Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is projected to win the state's U.S. Senate seat and would become just the sixth Black woman to serve in the chamber. She would join Democratic Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, marking the first time that three Black women serve in the Senate simultaneously.
The historic victories followed years of unsuccessful, high profile campaigns by Black candidates on both sides of the aisle. Along with Abrams' two losses in Georgia, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears fell short in her 2025 bid to become Virginia's first Black woman governor.
Not every Black candidate who ran for governor won Tuesday, though.
In Michigan, Republican U.S. Rep. John James lost his bid for governor, while South Carolina Democrat Jermaine Johnson also fell short. In Florida's Senate race, democratic socialist Angie Nixon lost to Ashley Moody, who was running for a full term after being appointed to fill the remainder of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's term.
