Before election night 2018, neither a lesbian of color nor a Native American woman had ever been elected to Congress. By trouncing a Republican incumbent in Kansas, Sharice Davids changed all that, and in one of the reddest states in the union.

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A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Davids utilized her entire biography, including stints as an mixed martial arts fighter and Obama White House Fellow, to connect with voters. She ran on protecting health care, treating gun violence as a public health crisis, and turning back the Trump tax cuts.

She is now one of two first-term Native American women in the House, and joined California's Mark Takano as an openly LGBTQ members of color. However, in the largest Democratic freshman class in generations and the most diverse House ever, Davids still cuts a singularly profile.

BRILLIANT 2018