Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is on her way to the U.S. Senate. She is bringing history with her.

Stratton easily defeated Republican Don Tracy, a former state party chairman, to win the seat held for nearly three decades by retiring Sen. Dick Durbin. The race was called the moment polls closed Tuesday night, with Stratton leading by close to 30 points in early returns.

Firsts on firsts

When she is sworn in in January, Stratton will be the sixth Black woman ever to serve in the Senate. For the first time, three Black women will hold Senate seats at the same time. She will join Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, neither of whom was on the ballot this year.

Illinois also makes its own mark. With Stratton joining Sen. Tammy Duckworth, it becomes the first state to be represented by two women of color in the Senate at once. Stratton will be only the second Black woman to represent Illinois in the chamber, following Carol Moseley Braun, who won her seat in 1993.

A seat with a past

Stratton leaned into that history in her victory speech on Chicago's South Side. She said Durbin had reminded her that this is the same seat Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas once fought over in a campaign that turned on slavery.

She then shared her own family's story. Her great great grandfather was freed when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Now, she said, a seat where the future of slavery was once debated will be held by the descendant of someone who was enslaved.

Stratton said that kind of progress only happens when people demand change and refuse to accept the limits placed on them. She told the crowd she does not take the history of the seat lightly because she knows she did not get there alone.

Ready to work

Stratton has served as lieutenant governor for eight years alongside Gov. JB Pritzker and was the first Black person to hold that job in Illinois. Pritzker called her a fantastic choice who leads with kindness and a real desire to improve lives.

On Wednesday, Stratton appeared with Duckworth on Chicago's West Side to talk about the relief she wants the next Congress to deliver. She said she looks forward to joining Duckworth and keeping the work going for every community in the state.