What is already the most diverse Congress ever will become even more so after elections which broke barriers of race and gender.
For the first time, a pair of Native American congresswomen are heading to the House, in addition to two Muslim congresswoman.
Massachusetts and Connecticut will also send black women to Congress as firsts for their states, while Arizona and Tennessee are getting their first female senators.
The high-profile midterm cycle that produced a record number of women contenders and candidates of colour means a number of winners will take office as trailblazers.
“This is going to be a long process to get us to a point of proportionate representation, but tonight is a giant step forward for what leadership can and will eventually look like in this country,” Ms Peeler-Allen said.
She added that even women of colour who were unsuccessful will inspire a new crop of candidates, similar to the white women encouraged to run after Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential election loss.
Some of Tuesday’s black female pioneers, like Illinois nurse and Democrat Lauren Underwood and Connecticut teacher and Democrat Jahana Hayes, were first-time candidates.
Several will represent districts that are majority white and that have been historically conservative, their victories a rejection of conventional wisdom on electability and the effects of gerrymandering that have historically assigned elected officials of colour to represent minority communities.
Ms Pressley, a Democrat and Boston city councilwoman, will represent Massachusetts’ Seventh Congressional District in the next Congress.
Ms Pressley stunned the political establishment in September, defeating a 10-term incumbent in the Democratic primary, and ran unopposed in the general.
Tonight, we reaffirm what makes Colorado the amazing state that it is.
Here, we dream, we dare, and we do. We embrace big ideas and we work sun-up to sundown to make them realities. We see the highest mountains and we climb them. We face the tough decisions and we solve them. pic.twitter.com/s5TgypKQs5
— Jared Polis (@PolisForCO) November 7, 2018
“None of us ran to make history,” Ms Pressley told supporters in her acceptance speech Tuesday.
“We ran to make change. However, the historical significance of this evening is not lost on me. The significance of history is not lost on me.”
Half a century ago this week, New York’s Shirley Chisholm was elected the first black woman in Congress, and several of the black women elected Tuesday have said their campaigns were inspired by her example.
Also in the House, Democrats Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan will be the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.
Democrat Mike Espy, who will face Mississippi Republican Representative Cindy Hyde-Smith in a December runoff, could become the state’s first black senator since reconstruction.
And regardless of who wins in Arizona’s competitive Senate race, the state will elect either Republican Martha McSally or Democrat Kyrsten Sinema as the state’s first woman to serve in the chamber.
#76 Tlaib family voted. #MakingHistoryTogether #rashidaforcongress pic.twitter.com/rbwNPQQ6mU
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 6, 2018
Also in the Senate, Republican Marsha Blackburn will become Tennessee’s first woman senator.
Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, was in a fierce battle to become America’s first black woman governor, while Democrat Andrew Gillum narrowly lost his bid to become the first black governor of Florida.
Idaho gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan also lost her race to become the country’s first Native American governor.
In Colorado, Jared Polis will be the country’s first openly gay man elected governor.
In New Jersey, Democratic Governor Jim McGreevy, elected in 2001, had been outed as gay while in office.
