Meet 10 Women Who Could Make History This November in the Midterm Elections

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old woman running in New York’s 14th Congressional District, is set to become the youngest Congresswoman ever, if she wins her deep blue district in the general election.

“When I first started, I absolutely had major impostor’s syndrome,” she told ELLE.com. “Especially when I first started, there are a lot of haters out there, and they’re like, ‘Who are you? You’re just a waitress running for Congress.’ [But] I was always confident that what I was doing was the right thing to do and that what I was standing for was the morally superior position. And that’s where I started from. But it took me months and months and months to convince myself and to convince others that I was legitimate.”

This August, attorney and ex-MMA fighter Sharice Davids won the Democratic House nomination in Kansas’ third Congressional District. Now, if she wins in November, she could become the first openly lesbian Native American congresswoman.

“We are going to elect more women this year, we’re going to elect more people who are L.G.B.T., we’re going to elect more people who are people of color. This midterm election cycle is our opportunity to demonstrate who we are as a country,” Davids told the New York Times.

Paulette Jordan could become the nation’s first Native American governor and Idaho’s first female governor if she wins this November. She’ll be running in a red state that hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 1990, but she’s up for the challenge.

Earlier this summer, she told ELLE.com: “What’s so rare, that people have never seen in this country, is an indigenous woman run and lead. It’s never happened in the history of this country, that a woman would run and lead on the executive level like this. And so we’re breaking boundaries now as we speak. People are seeing that there’s someone who’s not only radically empathetic to the voice of the people but also has a deeper sense of love toward land and all of humanity.”

If Gina Ortiz Jones wins her race for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District in November, she’ll become the first Iraq War veteran, first Filipina-American, and first out-lesbian to represent Texas in Congress, and she’ll be the first woman to represent her district.

“As amazing as all those things would be, I would be honored if I was not the last of any of those,” she told ELLE.com. “To me, this is about protecting the opportunity so that my story is possible for others. And honestly, I ran for this not to be the first but because a member of Congress does three things: they create opportunities, they protect opportunities, or they erase opportunities. They do that with their voting record, they do that with their silence. And you and I have seen just how dangerous that silence can be.”

Veronica Escobar, a former teacher and county judge, will become one of Texas’ first Latina congresswomen, if she wins her midterm election. She’s currently running for Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s vacated seat in the state’s 16th Congressional District.

She told ELLE.com, “If we achieve this, then I love that it’s the border that made history.”

State Senator Sylvia Garcia will hopefully be joining Escobar in Congress, making her one of Texas’ first Latina congresswoman. She won her primary this March, but told ELLE.com that the impact of her win didn’t hit until the morning after the election, when she saw this headline in the Houston Chronicle: “History in the making.”

Rashida Tlaib won her primary this August, securing her spot in the general election, where she’ll run unopposed and likely become one of the first Muslim women ever elected to Congress. Tlaib is a single mother, the oldest of 14 children, and the daughter of Palestinian immigrants.

“Everything that’s happening against Muslims in our country, it is all not going to be this complete darkness… there is light,” she told ELLE.com. “And I think for me to win, the success of this campaign… it brought a light in a moment of darkness for many of us.”

Deb Haaland is on track to become one of the first Native American woman in Congress after she won her primary in New Mexico’s First Congressional District.

Back in 2014, she lost the race to be the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, but even the defeat was revelatory. She told ELLE.com: “If I ran, if I kept running, I could make sure that more of our folks were at the table, were in the conversation. That became the ultimate motivation.”

Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, a former refugee, is set to become the first Somali-American to ever serve in Congress. She could also become one of the first Muslim women in Congress, along with Rashida Tlaib.

Back in March 2017, she told ELLE.com, “I have a great sense of who I am. I am very focused on creating positive change. And unless someone is a willing contributor to creating that positive change, their feedback or criticism, especially criticism that is about my personal life and the way that I live my life or the way that I dress or who I worship, has no actual bearing on the things that I take into consideration and the decisions that I make.”

Stacey Abrams could become the first black female governor in the country, ever, if she were to win the Georgia gubernatorial race this November.

Back in Nov. 2017, she told Cosmopolitan.com, “My being a black woman is not a deficit. It is a strength. Because I could not be where I am had I not overcome so many other barriers. Which means you know I’m relentless, you know I’m persistent, and you know I’m smart.”