National CAPACD Proud of Historic Midterm Victories for Our Communities

Last Tuesday, more than 110 million Americans voted in the 2018 midterm election, the highest voter turnout rate since 1966. As we await the final results of several elections, National CAPACD stands in solidarity with the grassroots groups that did the incredibly important work of turning out the vote in our communities. Discontented with the status quo, voters elected one of the most diverse sets of incoming leaders who more authentically represent America. Highlights of these historic midterms include:

• Young voters aged 18 to 29 cast ballots in record numbers, surpassing voter turnout rates in midterm elections for this age group from the past quarter century.
• Voting rights were restored for up to 1.4 million people in Florida. A majority of voters in Florida supported a ballot measure that will give voting rights back to people convicted of felonies who have served their time.
• A record number of women will serve in the 116th Congress. 98 women won their House races and 13 women won their Senate races.
• Sharice Davids, Kansas’ 3rd District, and Deb Haaland, New Mexico’s 1st District, are the first Native American women elected to Congress.
• Rashida Tlaib, Michigan’s 13th District, and Ilhan Omar, Minnesota’s 5th District, are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Ilhan Omar is also the first Somali-American member in Congress.
• Jared Polis won the seat for governor in Colorado, and will become the nation’s first openly LGBT governor.
• Lou Leon Guerrero was elected to be the first female governor of the U.S. territory of Guam.
• Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia will become the first Latina Congresswomen to represent Texas. Ayanna Pressley will become Massachusetts’ first Black Congresswoman and Jahana Hayes will become Connecticut’s first Black Congresswoman.
• Young Kim, California’s 39th District, is expected to be the first Korean American woman elected to serve in Congress.
• Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez, New York’s 14th District, will become the youngest woman in Congress.

We are especially excited that National CAPACD CITC alumna Samantha Vang won her campaign for Brooklyn Center’s House District 40B in Minnesota. Samantha worked at National CAPACD member organization CAPI USA. Learn more about her campaign here.

National CAPACD Executive Director Seema Agnani said “We are encouraged by the wins that our communities saw on Tuesday and heartened that Congress is beginning to look like the America that we know and serve. We walk away with a mandate for 2020 and beyond— we must organize collectively and fiercely to challenge leadership that does not serve us and seeks to divide us. We must continue to support civic engagement and election protection work to counter deeply entrenched voter disenfranchisement in our communities. We must harness and build on the energy and momentum from this election to continue to place more women, more people of color, and more members of the LGBT community in leadership positions.”