Ritchie Torres and Mondair Jones: two openly gay black men elected into Congress
Two men and a woman made history in the U.S. 2020 election by becoming the first transgender and openly gay, black men to be voted as lawmakers.
Transgender activist, Sarah McBride beat Republican Steve Washington in Delaware to emerge the nation’s first openly transgender state senator.
McBride made history in 2016 when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first transgender person to do so at a major-party convention.
According to NPR, she interned at the White House during the Obama administration and served as the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.
She celebrated her win on Twitter, saying: “I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too.”
Ritchie Torres, a 32-year-old Democratic congressional candidate from New York who identifies as both black and Latino, defeated his Republican opponent and will head to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent the South Bronx, making him also the first openly gay Latino in the U.S. Congress.
Mondair Jones, a 33-year-old Democrat, was elected to represent New York’s 17th congressional district, which includes parts of New York’s Rockland and Westchester Counties.
Both men highlighted their humble origins during their campaigns, having grown up in poor, single-parent households in New York.

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