Democrat Andrea Jenkins has won election to the Minneapolis City Council, making her the first trans person elected to a major city’s governing body and the first out trans person of color elected to any office in the U.S.

Jenkins won in the city’s Eighth Ward, where she had been a policy aide to departing Council Vice President Elizabeth Glidden. She bested three other candidates. She had the endorsement of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as the Democratic Party is known in Minnesota, and of Victory Fund.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had endorsed her, saying she was highly qualified and well prepared for the office.

During the campaign, she said her priorities include developing affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, addressing youth violence as a matter of public health, and supporting minority artists. She is a historian with the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota as well as a poet, prose author, and performance artist who has received numerous grants for her work.

Congratulations, Andrea!

There are other big wins for the LGBTQ community too, including Danica Roem, who ousted longtime incumbent Del. Robert G. Marshall (R) Tuesday, becoming the first openly transgender elected official in Virginia. Jenny Durkan is projected to win the mayoral race, and will make her the first lesbian mayor in Seattle and Zachary DeWolf will become Seattle’s first openly gay school board member. And Lisa Middleton made history in Palm Springs by becoming the first transgender person elected to a non-judicial office in California.

(via The Advocate)