Three States. One Night. History.

Before Tuesday night, the whole of American history held exactly three elected Black governors: L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989, Deval Patrick in Massachusetts in 2006, and Wes Moore in Maryland in 2022. No two of them ever held office at the same time.

On Tuesday, voters added three more names to that list in a single night — in Georgia, in Florida and in Wisconsin, on both sides of the partisan divide.

Georgia: the first Black woman

Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, won Georgia — and with it, the largest of the night's firsts: she is the first Black woman ever elected governor in American history. Bottoms defeated Republican Rick Jackson, succeeds Brian Kemp, and ends roughly 28 years of Republican control of the Georgia governor's office. The seat carries a recent history of its own — Stacey Abrams ran for it in 2018 and again in 2022, and lost both times. Bottoms finished the climb.

Florida: the Republican

Byron Donalds, a U.S. congressman and ally of President Trump, became Florida's first Black governor — and the first Black Republican ever elected governor in this country. He defeated David Jolly, himself a former Republican congressman running as a Democrat, and succeeds the term-limited Ron DeSantis. His win landed in the middle of a Democratic wave night, and that is part of what makes Tuesday bigger than a party story: this milestone crossed the aisle.

Wisconsin: the comeback

David Crowley's first might be the most improbable of the three. The 40-year-old Milwaukee County executive — now the youngest governor in America — became the first Black governor in Wisconsin's 178-year history, beating Rep. Tom Tiffany about 53 to 47, with Tiffany conceding before the night was out. Crowley grew up in Milwaukee's 53206 ZIP code, and his family was evicted when he was 16. In July, he quit this race — weak polls, weaker fundraising. Ten days later he was back in it. He won his primary by 3,673 votes, then got massively outspent in the most expensive governor's race in state history, some $195 million swirling around it. Then he won anyway.

Four at once

The fourth chair was filled early in the evening. In Maryland, Wes Moore was re-elected in a rematch with Dan Cox — the Associated Press called it at 8:01 p.m. Eastern, with Moore running roughly 63 to 33. Moore's win in 2022 had made him the third name on the all-time list. When Bottoms, Donalds and Crowley are sworn in this January, he becomes one of four Black governors serving at the same time. That has never happened. One night took the all-time count of elected Black governors from three to six.

One more still counting

The number could still grow. In Nevada, Attorney General Aaron Ford's run for governor remained too close to call as the night closed — no winner, no loser, just a count still running. History may not be finished.

History in this country usually moves one name at a time — 1989, 2006, 2022. On Tuesday it moved three names in a few hours: a former mayor, a congressman, and a county executive who had quit his own race four months earlier. That's the night it was.