US midterms: First Muslim, gay senators; first Black woman, Native American governors

• Democrats score historic victories, with multiple firsts including the election of the first Muslim US senator, the first openly gay male senator and the first Native American woman governor.

• Republicans suffer major setbacks as Democrats flip traditionally Republican seats, including Senate victories in Kansas, Texas and South Carolina.

• Trump refuses to take responsibility for Republican rout, claims he would have won in a landslide had he been on the ballot.

US President Donald Trump watched election results from the White House East Room, where the mood was described as tense. For three hours after the polls closed, he went silent on the night of Tuesday, 3 November as Democrats kept winning races. He finally posted just after 10.30 pm in Washington D.C. 'I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP.'

Even as the US President refused to own the responsibility for the whacking the Republicans received, the stunning election results threw up several firsts, among them the first Muslim to be elected to the US Senate. There were several other take aways as the results were still coming in:

• Before this year, only three Black candidates had ever won governor’s races in the United States — and multiple Black governors had never served simultaneously. Four Black candidates won on Tuesday and several more results were yet to come in. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor of any state ever in the United States.

• In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas became the first openly gay man elected to the US Senate.

• In Michigan, El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the Senate.

• Democrat Deb Haaland, meanwhile, became the first Native American woman to win a race for governor with her victory in New Mexico.

• Annie Andrews was being projected to become the first elected female US senator from South Carolina

• Kansas elected its first Democratic US senator in 94 years. Texas elected a Democrat, James Talarico, to the Senate, its first Democratic Senate victory since 1988.

• Gina Hinojosa has become Texas' first Democratic governor in more than 30 years and is its first Latina governor.

• Democrats won a Senate seat in South Carolina that they’d lost when Strom Thurmond switched parties in the 1960s

• Democrats won both the governor’s office and the Senate race in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio.

• In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham — claiming a seat that’s been in GOP hands since 1964. Darline Graham was President Trump’s choice in her late brother’s seat.

• In Ohio both Trump and vice-president J.D. Vance campaigned for Vivek Ramaswamy, whose decision to air an offensive ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent Amy Acton backfired. And rather than encouraging Ramaswamy to take it off the air, both Trump and Vance doubled down, defending its contents. Trump said he would have used an ad like it, too. Ramaswamy lost comprehensively.