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Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres become first Black, openly-gay Congressmen

Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres
L-R: Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres (Photos: Facebook)

Democratic nominees Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres have made history in New York by being elected to Congress. Torres becomes the first openly-LGBTQ Afro-Latinx man to be elected to Congress, while Jones is the first Black, gay man to take a Congressional seat.

New York City council member Ritchie Torres was fighting for New York State’s 15 Congressional District, which covers the South Bronx.

Related: Gay candidate Ritchie Torres has epic clap back for police union that called him a “first class wh*re”

With 88% of the ballot counting completed at the time of writing, Torres has taken 88% of the vote, while his Republican opponent, Patrick Delices, took just 11%. On hearing he’d won, Torres tweeted, “Thank you. Tonight, we made history. It is the honor of a lifetime to represent the essential borough, the Bronx.”

“It is the honor of a lifetime to represent a borough filled with essential workers who have risked their lives so that New York City could live,” he told reporters.

“The Bronx is essential, and the vibrant, loving and talented people who live here have shown time and again their power, fortune and perseverance.

“The Bronx is the heartbeat of New York City.”

Mondaire Jones, an attorney, also won his race for the 17th congressional district seat, encompassing Westchester and Rockland County.

Among those to vote for him was Hillary Clinton. The former Presidential candidate posted a photo of herself after she’d voted. Jones asked her who she’d voted for in the congressional race.

“You, of course,” she replied.

Jones won 54% of the vote, against Republican rival Maureen McArdle Schulman’s 39.7%.

Related: Meet the man who may become America’s first Black gay congressman

Yesterday Jones tweeted of how his grandmother, “Used to clean homes in Congers [NY]. When daycare was too expensive, she took me with her. Now I get to run to represent the same people whose homes I watched my grandmother clean growing up. My story, quintessentially, is that of the American Dream.”

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