Andrea Jenkins became the first openly transgender woman of color to be elected to public office in the country after she won the Ward 8 seat of the Minneapolis City Council on Tuesday night.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune confirmed her victory.

Jenkins is also the first transgender person to be elected to any municipal office, and was the second transgender woman to win an election on Tuesday after Democrat Danica Roem, 32, won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, defeating Republican incumbent Robert Marshall in the 13th District.

In her acceptance speech, Jenkins, a Democrat, said, "As an African American trans-identified woman, I know firsthand the feeling of being marginalized, left out, thrown under the bus. Those days are over. We don't just want a seat at the table, we want to set the table," according to Fox 9 news.

Jenkins defeated three other candidates for the seat. Jenkins is accomplished in many fields — she is a poet, a prose writer and a performance artist. Her campaign platform, the Advocate reported, included "affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, addressing youth violence as a matter of public health and supporting minority artists."

Jenkins was previously a policy aide to the Minneapolis City Council’s Vice President Elizabeth Glidden and worked to revitalize poor neighborhoods. She had said that through her work she wanted to improve the lives of people in those neighborhoods, according to the Advocate.

As her bio for the elections on her campaign website notes, Jenkins has an experience of 25 years in public service. Before she was elected to Ward 8, Jenkins also served as a policy aide to two former city council members.

Jenkins is also an award-winning poet, author, writer and performer and has earned fellowships from "the Bush Foundation, the Givens Foundation, and the Playwrights Center," among several other accolades, according to her bio. She has also performed her original work in numerous venues around Minnesota and the country, including the Pillsbury House Theater and the Walker Art Center.

Jenkins is also a well-known public speaker and has delivered several keynote addresses on college campuses and at conferences throughout the United States. She delivered a TEDx Minneapolis talk at the Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota in 2016.

Sara McBride, press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, celebrated Jenkins' win on Twitter by saying: "History tonight in Minnesota as Andrea Jenkins wins a seat on the Minneapolis City Council, becoming the first out Black trans woman elected to public office in America. So far, two trans women elected tonight!"

Jenkins ran with an affiliation to the Democratic Party in the officially nonpartisan race, the Advocate reported.

Jenkins' victory followed another historic election result Tuesday night as Virginia House of Delegates candidate Roem (D) defeated incumbent Marshall to become the state's first openly transgender elected official.

Roem's win on Tuesday marked the first election of an openly transgender person in a state legislature.

LGBTQ advocates praised and hailed Roem's victory in Virginia, with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) calling it "a clear warning to anti-equality lawmakers across the country."

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