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A deeply polarised US electorate has given the country its first transgender state senator and its first black gay congressman - but also its first lawmaker to have openly supported the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.

All four members of the progressive "Squad" of Democratic congresswomen of colour - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib - have been comfortably re-elected, and Sarah McBride's victory in Delaware has made her the highest-ranking trans official in the US.

"I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too," McBride, 30, who easily defeated the Republican Steve Washington to represent Delaware's first state senate district, tweeted after the election was called.

McBride, a former spokesperson for the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, was a trainee in the White House during the Obama administration and became the first trans person to speak at a major political convention when she addressed Democrats in Philadelphia in 2016.

"For Sarah to shatter a lavender ceiling in such a polarising year is a powerful reminder that voters are increasingly rejecting the politics of bigotry in favour of candidates who stand for fairness and equality," said Annise Parker of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which trains and supports out candidates.

In Vermont, Taylor Small, 26, has become the state's first openly transgender legislator after winning 41% of the vote to make it to the House of Representatives, making her the fifth "out" trans state legislator in the US.

Ritchie Torres will be the first Afro-Latino gay member of the US Congress after capturing New York's 15th district. Photograph: Adam Hunger/AP

Small, who is the health and wellness director at the Pride Centre of Vermont, told LGBTQ Nation last month she saw victory "not as a historic moment for myself, but more of a historic moment for the community".

In Kansas Stephanie Byers looks set to become the state's first transgender legislator by winning a state house seat. "We've made history here," Byers, who is also of Native American descent, said on Tuesday evening. "We've done something in Kansas most people thought would never happen, and we did it with really no pushback, by just focusing on the issues."

Parker said that with so few transgender people in elected office, nearly every win "is a historic one. With each barrier broken comes more trans people inspired to do the same. Even pro-equality states like Vermont need trans voices in government."

Ritchie Torres, 32, a city councillor, will be the first Afro-Latino gay member of the US Congress after comfortably capturing New York's 15th district, ranked on the Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index as the most Democratic district in the country.

"He was the clear standout candidate as the youngest Latino elected to the NYC council, the son of a single working mother from the Bronx and a champion for the essential workers of New York City," said Tony Cárdenas, the chairman of Bold Pac, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's campaign arm.

The Democrat Mondaire Jones, another black gay candidate for Congress, was declared later on Wednesday the winner of his race and will follow Torres into the House. Jones held a three-point lead over his Republican rival in the race for New York's 17th congressional district seat.

The election also returned its first 1990s-born congressman. Despite accusations of racism and sexual misconduct, Madison Cawthorn, 25, won the 11th congressional district of North Carolina to become the youngest GOP candidate ever elected to Congress and the youngest person of any party elected to it in more than 50 years.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican businesswoman, has become the first supporter of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory to win a US House seat when she was declared the winner of Georgia's 14th congressional district.

Green has faced national scrutiny for racist and bigoted statements and her support of QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory rooted in antisemitic tropes whose followers believe Donald Trump is secretly fighting against a cabal of Democrats, billionaires, and celebrities engaged in child-trafficking.

While the FBI has described the movement as a potential domestic terrorism threat, Greene received campaign support from groups connected to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, the board chairman of the prominent conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, and numerous major GOP donors.

Trump has repeatedly praised the candidate, who distanced herself from the QAnon conspiracy theory in an interview with Fox News in August, and consistently refused to denounce QAnon. Greene was among at least a dozen Republican congressional candidates - some estimates put the number upward of 20 - who had expressed some degree of support for QAnon.

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US elects first trans state senator and first black gay congressman

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A deeply polarised US electorate has given the country its first transgender state senator and its first black gay congressman - but also its first lawmaker to have openly supported the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.

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Afternoon Update: Not Much Has Changed, Biden Inches Closer

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Afternoon Update: Not Much Has Changed, Biden Inches Closer

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If Arizona and Nevada both report tonight, it won't be until evening. If they both go to Biden, he wins. If not, we wait another day for Georgia and Pennsylvania.

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Questions in the comments will be answered ASAP!

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Where Is The Remaining Vote In The Midwest? l FiveThirtyEight

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An interesting development in the race for Washington State Supreme Court (that's right, we ELECT Supreme Court Justices for our State Supreme Court). Raquel Montoya-Lewis, the first native woman on the State Court, is running for reelection against an opponent the State Bar Association called "unqualified" and who received no significant endorsement or support. Despite this, her opponent received over 1 million votes.  This begs the question: without party associations, what would make so many people vote for someone with no qualifications?  Could it be simply that her name is Raquel Montoya-Lewis and his is Dave Larson?
The same could be asked about Richard S. Serns, who is not even a lawyer and who's campaign was mostly wild conspiracy theories. Still, he received almost 903,000 votes, which makes one wonder if simply being names Richard instead of Helen (his opponent, a highly endorsed and experienced judge) was all it took for many voters?

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Oregon Decriminalizes Hard Drugs, Several States Legalize Marijuana

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Oregon Decriminalizes Hard Drugs, Several States Legalize Marijuana

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State initiatives around the country brought changes to drug laws, in efforts to reform the way drug use is approached and treated.

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Oregon becomes first US state to decriminalize possession of hard drugs

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A nationwide push to relax drug laws scored significant victories on Tuesday as four states voted to legalize marijuana, and Oregon became the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of hard drugs.

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With things slowing down until tomorrow, here are my final thoughts on what we've seen so far.

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No need to stay up all night, we may be in it for the long haul...

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The analysts at 538 lay out potential outcomes based on what we're seeing tonight, it looks like we won't know any concrete results at least until tomorrow.

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Texas Goes To Trump. What Are Biden's Remaining Paths To 270? l FiveThirtyEight

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Ask your questions in the comments below

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Republicans win two high profile Senate races

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Republicans win two high profile Senate races

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Senators Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, two leading Republicans, won reelection easily in races the Democrats poured lots of money into.
McConnell was the big favorite to win, and many criticized the Democratic Party for spending so much money in a race they never had much of a chance of winning. The party had spent a significant amount of money in the primary election simply to make sure their preferred candidate, Amy McGrath, won the nomination over a much more progressive grassroots candidate.

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Live updates on Presidential, House and Senate races

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See full results and maps from the 2020 presidential election.

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Post any questions you have about the electoral process, the candidates, or the news coverage and I'll answer them as best I can.

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Possibly the least surprising result of the night, Jay Inslee wins a third term as Governor of Washington

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Why is everyone so obsessed with Pennsylvania?

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You're about to see this type of image a lot tonight, and it does a very poor job of accurately portraying the results.

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The bad map we see every presidential election

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In 2016 Hillary Clinton was predicted to win in most polls... and we know how that went. So should we trust polls this time around? 538 (the premier polling organization) explains below what went wrong, and how they've changed their methodology this year to account for the oversights of 2016.

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What Happened To The Polls In 2016 — And What You Should Know About Them In 2020 l FiveThirtyEight