It’s a Big Night for Women in the US Senate

Voters in Nevada elected America’s first ever Latina to the US Senate, one of four women of colour to gain a seat in 2016.

Former Nevada Attorney General and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto. Cortez Masto said she hired undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children – known as DREAMers – to work in her office as Nevada’s attorney general.

“We need more women who are mentoring other women, particularly women of color, to say here’s how it can be done”, Cortez Masto told Fusion in an interview in the Senate. She capitalized on the extensive ground operation built by Hillary Clinton and energized Latinos by railing against Mr. Trump’s plan to build a border wall, while trying to pin Mr. Trump’s most controversial views on her opponent.

Finally, something to be happy about today. Harris-who is both African- and Indian-American-won 62.5 percent of the vote to Sanchez’s 37.5 percent. Cortez Masto defeated Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) in a tight race. In 1992, Carol Moseley Braun of IL became the first Black woman to be elected to the Senate. Last night, she began her victory speech by recalling how she used to attend caucuses with her grandfather, serving as his interpreter. “Well, today that 8-year-old kid is about to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives”. Harry Reid announced he was retiring. “It’s not my voice I’m taking to Washington, it’s all of yours”. While Cortez Masto understands Spanish but can’t speak it, she campaigned alongside Mexican superstars such as Vicente Fernandez and garnered support from prominent immigration activists who served as her emissaries across language and cultural barriers. She made her bid nearly 50 years before women even had the right to vote.