By Laura Gómez | Arizona Mirror
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema broke the glass ceiling when last week she became the first woman Arizona ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Come January, she’ll also be the first openly bisexual legislator to serve in Congress.
Kimberly Yee is the first woman of color in Arizona’s history elected to a major statewide office. At her victory speech on Nov. 6, Yee, who was elected state treasurer, said she was proud to be the first Chinese-American Republican woman voted into a statewide post anywhere in the United States.
Arizona’s legislative body will have firsts as well: Jennifer Longdon, a Democrat from District 24, is the first legislator who uses a wheelchair full-time, and Walter Blackman, from District 6, is the state’s first ever black Republican legislator.
The new legislative class in 2019 will have 29 people of color — three more than served in 2018. Of the 90 lawmakers, 35 are women and 11 of them are women of color. The number of minorities and women at the state legislature has held steady in recent years, and while it mostly isn’t in line with the Arizona’s demographics, the makeup and backgrounds of legislators is increasingly diverse.
