Historic firsts for women, minority and LGBTQ candidates in Sonoma County

Click through the gallery above to see some historic firsts for women and minorities in Sonoma County.|

The 2018 midterm elections were full of firsts across the country.

In Colorado, Jared Polis became the first openly gay man in the United States to win a governor's race. In Minnesota and Michigan, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib became the first Muslim women to be elected Congress.

Over the past 60 years, Sonoma County's local races have had their fair share of election firsts. Helen Rudee became Sonoma County's first female supervisor in 1976, Lee Pierce became Santa Rosa's first African American city councilman in 2004.

Click through our gallery above to see some of the other historic firsts for women and minorities in Sonoma County.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.