America just elected its first formerly undocumented immigrant to Congress

Adriano Espaillat was elected for the the House of Representative.

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 9 November 2016

Not only did America elect its first Latina senator, Catherine Cortez Masto, to office Tuesday, it also elected its first formerly undocumented immigrant to Congress.

Adriano Espaillat was elected to the House of Representatives for New York's 13th congressional district. The Democratic candidate received 89 percent of the vote, beating Republican Tony Evans' 7 percent. The district represents parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx including Harlem, Washington Heights, and the Upper West Side.

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Espaillat is also the first Dominican-American to be elected to Congress. Watch the speech below. Ricky Soberano

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Ricky Soberano is the social media editor at TheWeek.com. Her writing has appeared in Complex, Nylon, Gothamist, Maxim, and others. Previously she was the culture editor for The Stony Brook Press and contributing editor for The Odyssey. She has a B.A. in multidisciplinary studies in journalism and dance from Stony Brook University and an A.S. in dance from Queensborough Community College. She's lived in Brooklyn her whole life, eats too much ramen, and freelance models, and she enjoys writing about the undiscovered and underreported within the sphere of culture. Follow her on Twitter.