LGBT, Muslim and Women Candidates Make History in the 2018 Midterms
*By Chloe Aiello*
The 2018 Midterms may well go down in U.S. history as an election of firsts, with historic wins for Muslims, women, and LGBTQ candidates.
In Boston, city council woman Ayanna Pressley made history by becoming the first black woman the state of Massachusetts has ever sent to Congress. Pressley ran unopposed after she ousted 10-term incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano in the primaries.
In New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old Bronx native and self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, [became the youngest women ever elected to Congress](https://cheddar.com/videos/cheddars-midterm-races-to-watch). She made headlines in September after a stunning primary upset over career politician and incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley.
Two Midwestern states will both be the first to send Muslim women to Congress come 2019. Ilhan Omar handily beat her Republican opponent and will go on to the House to represent Minnesota's fifth district, which includes much of Minneapolis. She will also be the first Somali-American in Congress.
In Michigan, voters elected Rashida Tlaib to fill a seat vacated by John Conyers, who resigned last year after allegations of sexual misconduct. Tlaib won by a landslide in a district that includes parts of Detroit and its suburbs.
Jared Polis made history in Colorado as the first openly gay man to be elected governor in the U.S. An early cannabis proponent, Polis ran on a progressive platform and replaced incumbent John Hickenlooper, who had reached his term limit.
Republicans eagerly elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House speaker on Wednesday, elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the seat of U.S. power and ending for now the political chaos in their majority.
With mail theft and postal carrier robberies up, law enforcement officials have made more than 600 arrests since May in a crackdown launched to address crime that includes carriers being accosted at gunpoint for their antiquated universal keys, the Postal Service announced Wednesday.
Schools, shops, banks and Iceland's famous swimming pools shut on Tuesday as women in the volcanic island nation — including the prime minister — went on strike to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence.
A group of 33 states including California and New York are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people’s mental health and contributing the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.
In a courtroom showdown five years in the making, Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen testified Tuesday that he worked to boost the supposed value of the former president's assets to “whatever number Trump told us to."
