More than 30 years ago, then-Illinois state Rep. Carol Moseley Braun became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate in a watershed year for women candidates.
This year, another woman from Illinois — Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton — made history again. Her win makes her the fifth Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate and cements Illinois as the first state to have two women of color in the Senate at the same time. Her win also guarantees that, for the first time in history, three Black women will serve simultaneously in the upper chamber. Decision Desk HQ projected that Angie Nixon, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Florida, will lose to incumbent Ashley Moody.
Stratton recently told The 19th’s Errin Haines that running for Senate as a Black woman can be daunting — but that she relied on support from Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, the two Black women serving in the upper chamber.
“What I knew is that in something so hard, I could get there and there would be two other women who fully understood what it was like,” Stratton said. “I knew that when it’s hard, there was somebody I could go to and say, ‘Where are we? How do we navigate this? What do we need to do? How can you help me?’ Because a lot of times, it’s Black women doing that for other Black women.”
The election of Stratton, who will replace retiring Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, demonstrates a legislative body that is slowly but surely becoming more diverse. Whether or not Democrats flip control of the chamber, this year’s elections will reshape the face of an institution historically dominated by older White men and often likened to a country club.
Women hold only 27 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and just 64 women have ever served since the chamber first convened in 1789, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Of those senators, only five have been Black; Laphonza Butler was appointed to fill former Vice President Kamala Harris’ seat in 2021 but did not run for a full term. Only three Asian-American and Pacific Islander women (Harris, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii) and one Latina, Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada, have served in the Senate; all are Democrats.
Stratton is just one of the Democratic Senate candidates to make history in 2026.
In New Hampshire, Decision Desk HQ projects that Rep. Chris Pappas will be the first out gay man to serve in the Senate.
Democrats Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota and Mary Peltola of Alaska would make history as the first Native women to serve in the Senate if one or both are elected. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed could be the first Muslim senator. And Josh Turek, a wheelchair user and former Paralympian running for Senate in Iowa, would add to the ranks of senators with disabilities.
Stratton and Pappas were part of a wave of early projections — including the reelection of Jon Ossoff, in Georgia — suggesting a strong night in Democrats’ quest to gain control of the Senate.
In Kansas, pastor Adam Hamilton is vying to be the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1932. In Texas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in over 30 years, either Democrat James Talarico or Republican Ken Paxton will replace longtime Sen. John Cornyn. And in Maine, Democrat Troy Jackson is seeking to defeat fifth-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who holds the record as the longest-serving Republican woman senator.
The number of women senators serving in the next Congress won’t be fully decided in November: Two women senators, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, weren’t up for reelection this year but are running for governor in their states. If both win, as widely expected, they will appoint successors to fill the rest of their terms.
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