Historic vote: first Muslim in Congress

KEITH ELLISON, a Democratic state politician and lawyer, has become the first Muslim elected to the US Congress.

On the campaign trail in his urban Minneapolis district, Ellison, 43, talked little about his religious background, focusing on his call for an immediate US withdrawal from Iraq and his support for single-payer health care. He broke from more conservative Muslims by favouring gay rights and abortion rights.

Democrat Deval Patrick, who became the first African-American governor of Massachusetts and only the second in the history of the US since the 1870s.