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Hello and Happy Wednesday, folks!
Audience Editor Edgar Ramirez, back in your inbox at an unusual time -- but yet again, we are living in unusual times, especially after what transpired on Election Day.
While votes are still being counted in some areas, Democrats surged into Republican territory Tuesday night, with LGBTQ+ candidates helping flip congressional seats, New Hampshire electing the first out gay man to the U.S. Senate, Democrats breaking barriers in Texas, and securing another term for the nation’s first transgender member of Congress.
Texas delivered one of the night’s sharpest rebukes to Republicans’ anti-trans campaign strategy. After the GOP poured tens of millions into anti-trans television advertising in the state, Democrats flipped both the governorship and a U.S. Senate seat.
Democrats also captured Republican Senate seats in South Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina, expanding their leads in the House and U.S. Senate, setting up a confrontation with President Donald Trump over legislation, judicial confirmations, and congressional investigations.
Stay with us as we provide you with more coverage!
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Rainbow Wave 2026: See all the LGBTQ+ midterm election winners
Anna Girzone; Official portrait; Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for SiriusXM
Powerful gay House Democrat Robert Garcia wins reelection and delivers a two-word warning: ‘Lawyer up’
Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Chris Pappas makes history as the first out gay man elected to the U.S. Senate
Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images
Allison Montgomery wins race to become Alabama’s first transgender state lawmaker
Instagram/Allison Montgomery
Bisexual Pennsylvania state legislator and disability rights advocate Jessica Benham secures fourth term
PAHouse.com
Longshot JD Ford elected first out gay member of Congress from Indiana, unseating GOP incumbent
J.D. Ford for Congress
Bentley Hudgins wins Georgia Assembly seat as first out trans and nonbinary state lawmaker
The Advocate
Nebraska voters enshrine trans sports discrimination in state constitution
Envato / YuriArcursPeopleimages
Minnesota reelects Leigh Finke, the trans lawmaker who helped protect gender-affirming care
STEPHEN MATUREN/AFP via Getty Images
Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan race without throwing transgender people under the bus
Bill Pugliano / AFP via Getty Images
Missouri voters roundly reject trans fearmongering, vote down abortion ban
Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via Getty Images
Becca Balint, co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, wins reelection in Vermont
Elena Bohm/U.S. House of Representatives 
Emily Randall, first LGBTQ+ Latina in Congress, wins reelection in Washington
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Jeremy Moss becomes Michigan’s first out LGBTQ+ member elected to Congress
Courtesy Jeremy Moss Delaware voters send trailblazing transgender Congresswoman Sarah McBride back to the U.S. Congress
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Families Over Billionaires
Sharice Davids wins reelection in Kansas, preserving historic LGBTQ+ representation in Congress
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Ritchie Torres, the first out gay Afro-Latino member of Congress, wins reelection
lev radin/Shutterstock 
Rep. Mark Pocan Lesbian Delaware lawmaker Claire Snyder-Hall wins reelection in Rehoboth Beach district
Claire for Delaware
Marni von Wilpert flips California House seat, bringing a personal health care fight to Congress
Daniel Knighton/Getty Images Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wins reelection after strengthening protections for trans health care
Courtesy Maura Healey via facebook Queer Marine veteran JoAnna Mendoza flips Arizona House seat, defeating Republican Juan Ciscomani
JoAnna Mendoza campaign Love wins in Virginia as voters amend the state’s constitution to protect marriage equality
Tom Brenner/Getty Images
Eric Sorensen, the first out gay member of Congress from Illinois, secures a third term
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Malcolm Kenyatta, Pennsylvania’s first out gay Black lawmaker, wins fifth term
Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for SiriusXM
