By: Kayla Pasacreta

While midterm elections weren’t quite the blue wave Democrats were hoping for, the party made major accomplishment by re-taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 8 years; flipping over 23 Republican seats. Republicans clung to control of the Senate and held off Democratic governships in Florida, Georgia*, and Maryland.

Last night also marked a wave of historic firsts:

Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, photo via Washington Post

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress

Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland will become the first Native-American women ever elected to Congress
Ayanna Pressley will become the first Black congresswoman in Massachussetts
Colorado elects Jared Polis as the nation’s first openly gay Governor
Texas voters elect the state's first two Hispanic women to Congress
Republican Marsha Blackburn becomes the first female Senator to represent Tennnesse
South Dakota and Maine elected its first female governors
Michelle Lujan Grisham is the first Democratic Latina elected as a governor.

Women made history across the board last night.

Democrats take back the House

This is a huge deal! Democrats flipped 23 Republican seats to take back the House majority for the first time in 8 years. Donald Trump has already taken to Twitter to basically tell Democrats to not get too excited,

If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

Stacey Abrams isn’t conceding

The bid for Governor in Georgia, which was the subject of much controversy due to black voter suppression, is not over just yet. Stacey Abram’s opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, oversaw his own election and was forced to allow 3,000+ citizens to vote after attempting to purge their voter registrations. Georgia was also plagued with voting issues in predominately minority communities on Election Day, causing the NAACP to win a lawsuit to extend poll times in 2 counties for an additional 3 hours. Kemp is currently leading with about 50.5% of the vote, but Abrams’ camp believes that the 15,000+ votes that still haven’t been counted may be enough to reach the 50% threshold to pave the way for a runoff. If a runoff happens, Georgia voters will have to return to the polls on December 4th. A confident Abrams told supporters, “And folks, make no mistake, the math is on our side to win this election.” In other words, it ain’t over yet.

Democrats do OK with winning governships

Gillum, photo via CNN — Gillum, photo via *CNN*

Democrats won governships in Connecticut, ,Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin. Still, Republicans won in Florida, Ohio, and Iowa - all states that Trump flipped to win the 2016 election. Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, who had all the makings to emerge as a superstar of the Democratic Party, did not win his bid to be the Governor of Florida, the country’s third largest state and one of the most important battleground states. Still, Gillum urged his supporters to stay positive, “Are we going to wake up and bask in sorrow and defeat? Or are we going to get up and reassert ourselves at the mission at hand?”

Texas’ Senate race

Despite shattering fundraising records and bringing a massive blue wave to the deep-red state of Texas. With 99% of reporting in, Ted Cruz edged out O’Rourke with 4,228,832 votes, while O’Rourke narrowly fell behind with 4,015,082, roughly 48.3% of the vote. Despite the loss, Beto O’Rourke gained national attention - he visited all 254 Texas counties and raised over $70 million.

“I’m so f**king proud of you guys,” O’Rourke told supporters in his concession speech.