Wisconsin voters made history on Tuesday by electing Democrat Tammy Baldwin as the first openly gay US senator, according to Fox News.

The network projected that Baldwin, a member of the US House of Representatives for the past 12 years, defeated four-term Republican Tommy Thompson, former governor of the Great Lakes state.

“We never had an openly LGBT member of the US senate, and even though there are strong pro-equality allies who serve there, it has always been a conversation about a group of people, so this changes everything,” Baldwin said in a recent interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, referring to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Voters quoted in news reports said Balwin’s sexual orientation was not a significant factor in the campaign.

- dpa