African American candidates have made history in the 2026 US midterm elections, with Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms becoming the first African American woman to win a gubernatorial election in the country, while Republican Byron Donalds is set to become Florida's first African American governor.

According to CBS News, Bottoms defeated Republican Rick Jackson in Georgia's gubernatorial election, becoming the state's first woman governor, its first African American governor and the first African American woman to serve as governor of any US state.