The 2018 Midterm elections made history across the country on Tuesday, Nov. 8. A record-breaking number of women ran for elected offices and won positions in the House of Representatives, Senate and state governorships. In Kansas, Sharice Davids, an LGBTQ+ MMA fighter and Native American won a seat in the House. There were many firsts in this election; in Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn became the state’s first female senator. Colorado, elected the first openly gay governor, Jared Polis. Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar became America’s first Muslim woman to hold office. And last but not least, New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to office at 29 years old.
Davina Cepeda, an integrated strategic communications major and political science minor at WSU Vancouver said “I knew a little about her [before the election]” in reference to Ocasio-Cortez. “There’s something phenomenal about her. She’s able to push boundaries and make waves.”
Speaking of making waves, Guam, where Cepeda spent 17 years of her life, elected their first female governor this Midterm election. “All I can say is that I’m really excited. Guam is very traditional. Families are very involved,” Cepeda said.
Along with Carolyn Long and Jaime Herrera Beutler running in Washington’s Third Congressional District, two other women, Maria Cantwell and Susan Hutchison, ran for the seat of Senator. Cantwell, who won the Senate seat in the Midterm, made a visit to the WSU Vancouver campus on Oct. 30. During her visit she said, “We want to make the cost of student loans more affordable. We want to drive more into running start and other programs so education can be more affordable.”
When asked about student housing, Cantwell explained her bill called the Cantwell Hatch Bill which would allow homeless students to qualify for the affordable housing tax credit.
Across the country, various other states made a difference with their midterm votes. Florida voted, with a 60% supermajority, to restore the right to vote to felons who have served their time (murderers and felony sex crime are the two exceptions). Michigan became the tenth state to legalize recreational marijuana. Washington state voted on initiatives ranging from stricter gun laws to grocery taxes. See Washington’s Midterm election results in the box to the right.