First former refugee sent to Congress. First member of the openly gay United States House of Minnesota. First Muslim elected to an office in the state of Minnesota. First American Indian elected Lieutenant Governor of the country.

Voters in Minnesota ushered in a wave of firsts on Tuesday, as the Labor-Democrat Democratic Party won wide wins across the state, fueled by successes in the suburbs and by one more set of candidates. in addition diversified. The Republican party has behaved better in the more rural areas of the state, like the national elections.

"We have a party based on values ​​of love, respect, transparency, accountability – basic ideas summed up in the simple idea that everyone counts and everyone counts," he said. declared in his victory the American representative Keith Ellison, elected general attorney general. speech Tuesday night. Ellison, who was the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006, now boasts of this distinction for a political position throughout the state of Minnesota.

In at least one area, Minnesota's policy has not been in line with national trends: the DFL has taken control of the state but Republicans still run the Senate, making Minnesota the only state in the country with different parties controlling his two legislative chambers. This is the first time that only one state in the country has had this distinction for more than a century.

Here is a sneak peek of the election day story in Minnesota.

A first in the fifth, again

Barely two years after Ilhan Omar created the national airwaves by becoming the first Somali-born American to serve in a legislature, the 36-year-old Minneapolis Democrat danced with his family and supporters on Tuesday. while she won another historic victory.

"I'm here tonight as a woman elected to the convention with many firsts behind my name," Omar told his supporters at a party for victory in Minneapolis.

Omar will be the first former Congressional refugee, the first state-colored woman in Congress and the first US representative to wear a hijab on Capitol Hill. She will join Rashida Tlaib of Michigan as the first two Muslim women to sit in Congress. Omar won the fifth congressional district, safely, after serving a term in the Legislative Assembly.

Omar will replace Ellison, who defeated Republican Doug Wardlow in a hard-fought and often bitter race. Ellison is the first person of color in Minnesota and his first Muslim to hold the position of Attorney General. A spokesman for Ellison noted that Ellison was also the first black Minnesota elected in the entire state.

"Rainbow wave"

Minnesota also elected its first openly homosexual congressman when second-seat congressional voters chose Democrat Angie Craig over Republican Republican Jason Lewis. Craig has appeared on a record 391 LGBTQ candidates openly on ballots nationwide this year, according to data compiled by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee that has called the movement "rainbow wave".

In Hennepin County, Metro Transit Sgt. Dave "Hutch" Hutchinson was alleged to have overthrown Sheriff Rich Stanek and would likely become the first openly gay sheriff in the Midwest. Judge Margaret Chutich of the Supreme Court of Minnesota, the first openly gay justice court, also easily overcame a challenge from West Macdonald's lawyer, Michelle MacDonald, a controversial candidate who has always told The Star Tribune she had chosen to run against Chutich because of her sexual orientation.

On Tuesday, Minnesota was one of four states whose two senators were women. With Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith on the way to victory and the addition of Craig and Omar, the full congressional delegation of Minnesota is now split equally between five men and five women elected for the first time in the history of the State. Democratic United States Representative Betty McCollum has also acceded to a tenth term in the fourth congressional district, held by the DFL since 1949.

Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan became the first Aboriginal woman elected to the position in the country's history. She is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe.

Diversity in the Minnesota House

The DFL party also won the presidential elections behind a series of victories won by women, while two Americans of Somali descent and four new Hmong candidates were elected.

By winning the State House, Democrats have also earned the state a distinction over a century in the future: according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Minnesota emerged from the mid-session as the only state to be divided into legislatures – for the first time, a single state Two chambers were in charge of its chambers since 1914. The House of Minnesota was one of five legislative chambers that went from Republican to Democrat this election, joining the two chambers of New Hampshire, the Colorado Senate and the Maine Senate.

Make local history

The Hennepin County Council will have its first two color commissioners since its inception in 1852 with the election of two new political newcomers. Angela Conley defeated veteran Peter McLaughlin to represent the county's fourth district and Irene Fernando defeated former Minneapolis city councilor Blong Yang to win the second district's open seat.

Also on Tuesday, Maria Regan Gonzalez, who ran unopposed to become mayor of Richfield, became the first Latina mayor in state history. Rochester voters elected Kim Norton, a former state official, as the first woman mayor of the city.

Mankato also elected his first female mayor, Najwa Massad, a long-time Lebanese-American immigrant and restaurateur. Moorhead elected his first black mayor, lawyer Johnathan Judd, and American-Liberian Mike Elliott became the first colorful mayor of the Brooklyn Center.

Twitter: @smontemayor