Senate Will Soon Have Four Times as Many Women of Color

By Sameer Rao Nov 09, 2016

Three key victories last night (November 8) quadrupled the number of women of color in the United States Senate.

Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth and Catherine Cortez Masto each won their respective races. Before the three Democrats won last night, Japanese-American senator Mazie Hirono was the only woman of color in the Senate.

Harris, California’s current attorney general, beat out fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in both the primary and general election. Harris—who is both African- and Indian-American—won 62.5 percent of the vote to Sanchez’s 37.5 percent. 

Duckworth, the U.S. Representative from Illinois’ eighth congressional district and Iraq War veteran, beat Republican incumbent Mark Kirk with 54.4 percent of the vote. Duckworth is of Thai and Vietnamese descent. 

Cortez Masto, a former Nevada attorney general who is of Mexican descent, won against challenger Joe Heck, the current Republican U.S. Representative for Nevada’s third congressional district. She narrowly beat Heck 47.1 percent to his 44.7 percent to become the country’s first Latina senator.

(H/t Vox, Politico)