Midterm polls: Colorado elects USA’s first openly gay governor

Washington, Nov 7: Colorado on Tuesday, November 6, elected Jared Polis as the state's governor. The election was special since the Democrat candidate is the first openly gay man to win a race to governorship in the US.

Polis defeated Republican rival Walter Stapleton, the state's treasurer and will succeed John Hickenlooper, also a Democrat who finished serving the maximum possible terms.

The 43-year-old Polis, who has served in the Congress since 2009, is however the second LGBT person to be elected as a governor - the first being Oregon Governor Kate Brown, identified as a bisexual. A Democrat, Brown became the governor in 2015 and won the special election next year. She contested on Tuesday too and was projected to win again.

Polis contested the midterm elections on issues like Medicare-for-all, expansion of renewable energy, tougher gun laws, etc. He worked as an education philanthropic before coming to the Congress and set up many charter schools for unprivileged students. He was also the chair of Colorado's state board of education once.

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, hailed Polis's win as that of the LGBT rights.