Former President Donald Trump won the White House in an extraordinary political comeback, becoming the first president in more than a century to win a second term after being rejected by the voters.
His victory followed President Grover Cleveland's, who began his second term after a gap of four years in 1893.
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But that was hardly the only first to come out of this year's results. There were many others, on ballots across the country. Here are some of them.
First Republican on track to win popular vote in 20 years
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Staying with the presidential race, Trump appears headed to win not just the Electoral College but also the popular vote, the first Republican to achieve that milestone since President George W. Bush in 2004.
Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton on his first run in 2016 by about three million votes.
This time he was ahead by five million votes Wednesday morning, but the tallying is not final.
Decision 2024
First president convicted of felonies to be re-elected
On a different note, Trump's victory marked another first: the first president-elect who was found guilty of felony crimes.
Trump was convicted in May in a hush-payment case, accused of covering up a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels at the end of his 2016 presidential campaign. A New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records after Daniels accepted $130,000 in exchange for remaining silent about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump.
Trump has not been sentenced in the case.
He also was found liable of sexual abuse and defamation in a case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump still faces two other cases related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, one in federal court in Washington, D.C., and one in Georgia. A third case involving classified documents that Trump kept after leaving the White House was dismissed, but that dismissal is being appealed.
Trump promised that once he returned to office he would have the special counsel, Jack Smith, who brought the two federal cases against him, fired immediately. The Justice Department has a long standing policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted and NBC News reports, is moving to wind down the cases before Trump takes office.
Already complicating the cases is a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave a president immunity from prosecution if exercising the presidency's 'core powers.'
First transgender woman (or man) elected to Congress
That distinction goes to Sarah McBride, a state senator in Delaware who won the state’s only House seat.
Her goals in Congress? Expanding access to affordable health care, protecting reproductive rights, increasing the minimum age and breaking through partisan gridlock to pass legislation. That is what she is known for in the Delaware Senate, where during her first term she helped to pass universal paid family and medical leave.
“Tonight is a testament to Delawareans that here in our state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities,” McBride, a Democrat, said Tuesday night, according to NBC News.
Among those she thanked: her late husband, Andy Cray, who died of cancer in 2014, just days after their wedding.
Thank you, Delaware! Because of your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress.
— Sen. Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) November 6, 2024
Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our… pic.twitter.com/QgwRkpUlbD
Openly LGBTQ politician to represent Texas in Congress
Julie Johnson, a Democrat from Dallas, will become the first openly LGBTQ representative from Texas in Congress.
Her election stands in contrast to laws passed in Texas such as a ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender children, which was opposed by LGBTQ advocacy groups.
She will succeed a fellow Democrat, Rep. Colin Allred, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat Republican Ted Cruz.
Two Black women head to the Senate
Two Black women head to the U.S. Senate in firsts for each of them and together.
In Maryland, Democrat Angela Alsobrooks defeated former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to become the state's first Black senator.
In neighboring Delaware, another Democrat, Lisa Blunt Rochester, also was elected to the Senate, the first Black woman to represent the state.
For the first time, two Black women will be serving as senators at the same time.
They were preceded by Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, a Democrat who represented Illinois from 1993 to 1999, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the Senate from California from 2017 to 2021, and Sen. Laphonza Butler, also of California, who was appointed last year to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and who declined to run for the seat.
Their victories raise the number of Black members of the Senate overall to five, the most to serve together in the history of a body that remains dominated by white men.
Congress' longest serving woman
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio, was fighting to remain the longest serving woman in Congress.
First elected in 1982, Kaptur gained that title in the House in 2018. She now has bested the record of Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland who served in Congress for 40 years.
Kaptur was up against Republican Derek Merrin, in a race NBC has not yet called.
Hispanic lawmakers make gains
Republican Bernie Moreno, an Ohio businessman born in Colombia, beat longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, ending Brown's 50-year political career.
In the House, Nellie Pou becomes the first Hispanic woman to represent New Jersey.
