Black candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties achieved historic electoral victories in the 2026 midterm elections, marking significant milestones for gubernatorial races and congressional representation.
ABC News projects that Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-Georgia), David Crowley (D-Wisconsin), Aaron Ford (D-Nevada), and Byron Donalds (R-Florida) will become governors in states that have never before elected Black chief executives. These victories come as Black Americans already hold prominent national positions, including a potential Black Speaker of the House, the longest-serving Black Senator, and a Black President and Vice President.
Prior to these projected wins, only three Black Americans had been elected governor: Wes Moore of Maryland (who is projected to win reelection), L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia (1989), and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts (2006). In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Delegate Stacey Plaskett is projected to win the governorship, becoming the territory's first female chief executive.
With these projected gubernatorial wins, Black governors will represent 10% of the nation's chief state executives for the first time. Historically, a few Black individuals have served as governor without being elected, including P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana during Reconstruction and David Paterson of New York, who succeeded Eliot Spitzer after his resignation.
In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, is set to be the first Black woman elected governor of the state, and indeed the country. Her victory in Georgia, a former Confederate state, follows unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns by fellow Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Florida will see its first Black Republican governor in Congressman Byron Donalds. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is projected to become Wisconsin's first Black governor. Aaron Ford, Nevada's attorney general, is poised to be the first Black person elected governor west of the Mississippi River, having previously been Nevada's first Black AG and state Senate majority leader.
Historic firsts also extended to lieutenant governor races. In New York, Adrienne Adams is projected to become the state's first Black woman lieutenant governor. Oklahoma's T.W. Shannon is projected to win the lieutenant governor race, making him the state's first Black and Chickasaw lieutenant governor. South Carolina's Mike Reichenbach is projected to become the state's first Black lieutenant governor since 1876.
In Pennsylvania, Austin Davis, the state's first Black lieutenant governor, is projected to serve a second term. In Illinois, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is projected to win a U.S. Senate seat, which would make her the sixth Black woman to serve in the chamber. Her potential Senate colleagues, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, would mark the first time three Black women serve in the Senate simultaneously.
These achievements followed significant but unsuccessful campaigns by other Black candidates, including Winsome Earle-Sears' bid for Virginia governor and Stacey Abrams' gubernatorial runs. Not all Black candidates were victorious, with John James losing his bid for governor of Michigan and Jermaine Johnson falling short in his South Carolina gubernatorial race.