California is about to elect the first openly gay immigrant to the US Congress
Voters in Long Beach, California, are about to register two historic achievements for the region – to send the first immigrant from the LGBT community to the US Congress and to elect the city's first black mayor, BTA reported.
Robert Garcia, the current Democratic mayor of Long Beach, who is of Peruvian descent, is about to become the first openly gay immigrant in the House of Representatives. He is projected to win by a landslide over his Republican challenger, John Briscoe, in this week’s election.
Garcia, who has already declared himself the winner, said on Twitter that he received an “incredibly kind and inspiring call from President Joe Biden.”
Garcia’s place as mayor could be filled by Rex Richardson, who, if elected, would become Long Beach’s first black mayor.
Richardson, who is leading by a narrow margin according to preliminary results, has expressed confidence in reaching the mayoralty but has not yet officially declared himself the winner.
In California, the US midterm elections have already produced historic achievements – the first Hispanic politician elected to represent the state in the US Senate, as well as the first Asian American elected mayor of San Bernardino.
