2020 Election Results We're Proud to Tell Our Kids About

While we still await the big-picture results of the 2020 elections, we want to revel in a bit of good news for parents who are hoping for a better future for their kids. On Tuesday night, there were victories down the ballot that demonstrate how far we’ve come in ensuring that Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ people in this country are represented in the government. That means more young people can see themselves in leadership positions.

Here are a few of the winners you can tell your children about this morning.

Sarah McBride

McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to a state senate, and the highest-ranking transgender official in the country, when she won her Delaware state senate election. The 30-year-old Democrat is well aware of what this means for younger people, and said she hopes her victory sends the “message to a young person struggling with where they fit and how they fit into this world: that our democracy is big enough for them too and their voices matter,” in a speech on Tuesday night, per the New York Times.

“I am hopeful that there’s a young person desperately in need of that message, who, just before going to bed, looked online and saw this result,” she said. “For that person, they know that change is possible and things can get better.”

Cori Bush

Missouri nurse, minister, and Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush said she entered politics because of her children. “I was thinking about my son and my daughter; what can I do to help to ensure they don’t become the next hashtag?” she told People.

After the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014, she began using her nursing and clergy skills to help protesters. Then in 2016, she decided to run for U.S. Senate. Though she was defeated in the primary then, and again in the primary for U.S. Congress when she ran in 2018, she tried again this year and won. We’re not surprised to see a mother not accept defeat when she’s fighting for her kids. She’ll be the first Black congresswoman from her district.

Ritchie Torres & Mondaire Jones

New York is making double history with two Democrats in the new class of U.S. House members. City Councilmember Ritchie Torres, 32, and Westchester attorney Mondaire Jones, 33, will be the first openly gay Black men in Congress. Torres is also Afro-Latino and has spoken about suffering from depression as a college student when he was coming out.

“I used substances. I lost my best friend from an opioid overdose. There were times when I had moments of suicidal ideation. It felt as if the world around me had collapsed,” he told Buzzfeed News earlier this year. “I assumed that the problem was me, that I was experiencing a failure of willpower or character, and then I came to later realize that I was struggling with a condition.”

Both of these men, who ran on progressive platforms that would help their communities, are also serving as great examples for other young people too.

Are there other winners whom our kids will look up to this year? We’re refreshing our feeds every minute to find out.

Need more inspiration for your little ones? Start with these great children’s books starring girls of color.

Launch Gallery: Diverse Children's Books Starring Black & Brown Girls Every Kid Should Read

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