ShareDead Republican brothel owner wins election in Nevada
COLORADO: Democratic Colorado Governor-elect Jared Polis arrives onstage with running mate Dianne Primavera in Denver, Colorado. Polis defeated incumbent Republican Walker Stapleton to become the first openly gay man elected Governor in the country. —AFPLOS ANGELES: Democratic Congressman Jared Polis has won the governor's race in Colorado, networks projected on Tuesday, making him the first openly gay person to be elected as a US governor. The five-term congressman, 43, who defeated Republican Walker Stapleton, was open about his sexual orientation during the campaign, often referring to it in his criticism of President Donald Trump.
Kate Brown became the first bisexual governor when she was elected in Oregon in 2015, while another governor, Jim McGreevey of New Jersey, came out as gay before resigning in 2004. But Polis is the first openly gay candidate to be elected governor. He will succeed Democrat John Hickenlooper, who has been in office since 2011. A self-made millionaire and tech entrepreneur, Polis was admitted to Princeton University at age 16. And he has said that he set his sights on becoming governor when he was in college. Polis, who is Jewish, switched his name from Jared Schultz to Jared Polis at age 25 to honor his grandmother, he has said.
He was one of hundreds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates in the midterm elections, including 21 for Congress and four for governor. "LGBTQ candidates are running for office in unprecedented numbers and in every state in the nation - and it is already inspiring more LGBTQ people to run in the near future," Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a nonpartisan group, said ahead of the elections. "This rainbow wave of candidates is certainly concentrated in blue states and districts, but LGBTQ leaders in conservative parts of the nation are standing up and determined to become public servants while remaining true to who they are.
Dead brothel owner wins
Meanwhile, a brothel-owning, evangelical Christian-backed Republican candidate who died last month won his race for the Nevada state legislature late on Tuesday, according to state election officials. Dennis Hof, 72, defeated Democratic candidate and educator Lesia Romanov in the race for Nevada's 36th Assembly District, earning about 68 percent of the vote. County officials said they would appoint a replacement candidate from the same party for his seat.
A representative for Romanov did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hof, who presented himself as an American pimp, was a strip-club owner who ran multiple brothels. He had nicknamed himself the "Trump from Pahrump," after the town where he lived in Nevada. In a June interview with Reuters at Moonlite BunnyRanch, his brothel near his home in Pahrump, Nevada, Hof said his political fortunes had parallels with those of US President Donald Trump. "This really is the Trump movement," Hof said. "People will set aside for a moment their moral beliefs, their religious beliefs, to get somebody that is honest in office."
VP brother in Congress
The US midterm elections on Tuesday will bring a range of fresh faces to Washington, from the vice president's brother to the youngest-ever woman in Congress. Here is a look at some of the most prominent of the new legislators:
Young left-wing star
At 29, staunch left-winger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and one of the youngest members ever. Until recently making ends meet as a bartender, Ocasio-Cortez scored an upset in a Democratic primary in New York City to defeat 10-term member Joe Crowley, one of the most powerful members of the party. She easily won Tuesday against a Republican in the heavily Democratic and ethnically diverse district straddling Queens and The Bronx. A supporter of leftist Senator Bernie Sanders-who won his own re-election bid Tuesday-Ocasio-Cortez has quickly become a national voice with her calls for a universal health care system, tuition-free public universities and the abolition of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has executed President Donald Trump's campaign to deport undocumented immigrants.
Face of change in Boston
Ayanna Pressley, 44, on Tuesday became the first African American woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts, representing much of the same area as John F Kennedy. In a story with parallels to Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley defeated a 10-term male incumbent, Mike Capuano, in the Democratic primary for a left-leaning district that includes much of Boston and Harvard University. Like Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley cast her election as part of a need for better representation in the era of the #MeToo movement. When she won the primary, she denounced President Donald Trump as "a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man."
Vice presidential brother
Politics has become a family affair for Vice President Mike Pence, with his brother Greg elected to his former congressional seat in Indiana. The vice president took to Twitter to congratulate his brother, who easily won the solidly Republican and heavily white district in the Midwestern state. The elder Pence has little political experience but touted his family ties and his business record. Pence headed a chain of fuel suppliers and convenience stores under the name Tobacco Road-which went bankrupt after facing claims worth $100 million.
First Muslim women-
For the first time, the US Congress will have Muslim women-and two of them. Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee, won a House seat in a heavily Democratic district in Minneapolis, where she will succeed Keith Ellison, himself the first Muslim elected to Congress. Rashida Tlaib, a social worker born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrant parents, won a House seat in a district where she ran unopposed by a Republican candidate. Tlaib has vehemently opposed Trump-even heckling the then-candidate during a 2016 campaign appearance in Detroit. "I didn't run because my election would be historic. I ran because of injustices and because of my boys, who are questioning their identity and whether they belong," Tlaib told ABC News in August.
First Native American woman
Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids became the first Native American woman elected to Congress, defeating Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder. Davids, 38, is an attorney by training and a former mixed martial arts fighter. She is also openly lesbian, in a state that is traditionally conservative. Davids-who was raised by a single mother Army veteran-won a district that includes Kansas City and its southern suburbs. She wore a T-shirt in her campaign advertisements that read, "Strong, Resilient, Indigenous."- Agencies
