Tina Kotek, a progressive Democrat who faced a pair of well-funded challengers, was elected to lead Oregon, according to The Associated Press.

Kotek’s victory, declared on Thursday, will make her and Maura Healey, the barrier-breaking attorney-general who won the Massachusetts governor’s race this week, the first openly lesbian governors in American history.

Voters previously elected a gay man as governor (Jared Polis of Colorado, who was re-elected on Tuesday) and a bisexual woman (Kate Brown of Oregon), both of whom a real so Democrats.

Kotek, a former Oregon State House speaker, defeated Christine Drazan, a Republican, and Betsy Johnson, a Democrat-turned-independent who campaigned as a centrist.

With a reputation in state government as an aggressive political operator, Kotek, 56, is known for twisting arms in the Democratic caucus to achieve her policy goals and, detractors said, occasionally breaking promises along the way.

She campaigned as a protector of Oregon’s liberal values, arguing that either of her opponents would threaten the state’s status as a haven for abortion rights and environmental protection while also saying that she alone could solve a years-long homelessness crisis in Portland, the state’s largest city.

(New York Times News Service)