US midterm elections feature one of the most diverse groups of candidates ever
- ‘One unintended effect of Donald Trump is that he has alleviated fears of people who thought they were unqualified for office’
- Most are running on Democratic tickets
One of the most diverse pools of candidates ever in the United States is up for election Tuesday, and many of them will be firsts if voted into office.
They’re running for offices for governor, House and Senate and state legislative, mayoral, city council and school board positions.
Of the thousands of such candidates that political scientists, activists and political action committees have tracked, most are running on Democratic tickets.
That trend matches long-standing data that Republican voters and candidates are more likely to be white while the Democratic side tends to be more diverse.
Republicans have a candidate from California who could become the first Korean-American woman in Congress, one in Rhode Island who would be the state’s first Asian-American governor, and one from Hawaii who could be that state’s first openly gay man in Congress.
According to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, there are 6,066 state legislative races Tuesday with more than 5,300 Democratic candidates in the running.
About 1,100 are non-white Democrats. More than 275 candidates in those state races are non-white Republicans.