Lisa Blunt Rochester wins in Delaware, making her the state's first female senator

Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester will become the first Black woman to represent Delaware in the Senate after she defeated Republican Eric Hansen and independent candidate Mike Katz, NBC News projects.

Blunt Rochester, 62, told NBC News before Election Day that she had her sights set on creating jobs, protecting reproductive rights, health care and centering the needs of seniors and families.

Blunt Rochester, who is in her fourth term in the House, is a history-making politician, already the first woman and the first Black person to represent the state in Congress. Yet she stressed that her candidacy was not only about breaking barriers. “I’m not doing this to make history,” she told NBC News. “I’m doing this to make a difference.”

Hansen, a former Walmart and Procter & Gamble executive, promoted his business experience as an advantage over being a career politician. His platform entailed fixing “broken” schools, health care and prescription drug affordability, the environment, reducing gun violence and crime, and the economy. Katz is a physician and former state senator who was a Democrat but changed his party affiliation to independent. The candidates did not hold a debate.

Blunt Rochester said that despite her lead in the polls, she took nothing for granted.

Delaware is “urban, suburban and coastal,” she said before the election. “It’s a blue state, but we vote blue, red and purple. I am letting voters know that I want to represent everyone. If I go to the Senate, we all go.”

Currently, Laphonza Butler of California is the only Black woman serving in the Senate — and the third in history, after Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her last year to fill the seat of the late Dianne Feinstein; Butler opted not to seek election.

During her election night speech, Blunt Rochester tipped her hat to the Black women who came before her in the Senate.

"As I prepare to step foot on that trail blazed by the three strong Black women senators who came before us — Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Senator Laphonza Butler — I have a message to the young people who are standing up, speaking up, and giving your all for our country and the world," she said. “I see you, I’m grateful for you and you’ve got next."

Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said the race in Delaware was closely watched because of the scant numbers of Black women in the Senate. Aside from Butler, only Californian Kamala Harris, who served from 2017 to 2020, and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, from 1993 to 1999, had made it to the Senate.

“We’re talking here about a history of not just under-representation — and keep in mind that Black women are nearly 8% of all Americans — but also long periods of no representation at all for Black women in the Senate,” Walsh said. “So this certainly is a potentially historic moment, but we also should reflect on what is gained by having their voices in the conversation.”

Blunt Rochester ran for the seat being vacated by her mentor, Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat who hired her as a congressional intern when she was a graduate student. At a town hall in the late 1980s, Carper said, he heard Blunt Rochester express a "heartfelt interest in public service and in making a difference with her life.”

She ascended the ranks in his office and later when he became governor before she joined the Cabinet of Ruth Ann Minner, Delaware’s first female governor. She also was the CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League.

In 2014, tragedy struck when her second husband suddenly died after blood clots from an Achilles tendon rupture traveled to his heart and lungs. In her grief, Blunt Rochester said, she sought direction and felt inspired to run for office. In 2016, she won.

EMILY’s List, which supports women running for elected office, called Blunt Rochester a “groundbreaking leader” in a statement Tuesday night.

“She is a champion for working families, women, and civil rights,” said EMILY’s List president Jessica Mackler. “We have been proud to stand with her throughout her career and cannot wait to see her make history in the U.S. Senate.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com