DACA recipient wins New Mexico legislative seat and other historic 2024 election wins

As the 2024 election results continued rolling in Wednesday morning, the outcomes of federal and state races took shape across the United States. A handful of them marked historic victories, with Congress’ first transgender representative and Maryland’s first Black senator among them.

In New Mexico, voters elected Cindy Nava to join the state legislature, paving the way for a former undocumented person and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipient to hold a position in public office. 

Nava, a Democrat, won New Mexico’s state Senate contest in District 9, which includes a region just north of Albuquerque. She bested Republican candidate Audrey Trujillo with 55% of the vote, according to results shared online by the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office.

Originally from Mexico, Nava came to the U.S. as a young child with her family. She was a Dreamer — a recipient of the DACA program — which was designed to protect undocumented people who arrived in the country as children from being deported. The Obama-era policy took effect in 2012.

Years later, after graduating from college in New Mexico, Nava was appointed to serve as a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Biden administration. She was the first former DACA recipient appointed by the White House, said Nava in a biography that appears on her campaign website.

“I am the first in my family to graduate college, and the first Dreamer (DACA recipient) in the country to be appointed by the White House,” the bio reads. “Now, I am among a small handful of Dreamers in the country who are running for public office.”

Nava’s victory in New Mexico’s state legislature was unprecedented because a former DACA recipient had never successfully become an elected official before this latest election. She could potentially share that milestone with Luis Mata, a Democratic candidate for Tennessee’s House of Representatives in 2024 who was also a Dreamer.

Historic election triumphs touched multiple states.

Delaware

Delaware made huge strides in the 2024 congressional elections. Sarah McBride, a Democrat who has served in the Delaware State Senate and worked in the Obama administration, won her U.S. House race and became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, also a Democrat, also became the first woman and the first Black person elected to serve in the U.S. Senate from Delaware. She reached the same milestone for Delaware when she was elected to represent the state in the House in 2017.

The upcoming congressional term will mark the first time two Black women serve simultaneously in the Senate, owing to Rochester’s victory in Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks’ victory in Maryland.

Maryland

Alsobrooks, a Democrat, will become Maryland’s first Black senator after winning her congressional race. She currently serves as the county executive for Prince George’s County, near Washington, D.C.

New Jersey

Democrat Andy Kim won his congressional race in New Jersey, becoming the first Korean American person elected to the U.S. Senate.

North Dakota

Julie Fedorchak, a Republican who sits on North Dakota’s public service commission, will become the first woman from the state in Congress. She was elected to represent North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ohio

Republican Bernie Moreno, of Ohio, became the first Latino elected to the U.S. Senate in that state.