Politics and Current
More than 600 Black women join Kamala Harris in voting in the historic 2024 election
While Kamala Harris awaits her fate in becoming America’s first woman and Black woman president, the vp is leading an extended list of Black women who will likely be on the ballot across the country in the upcoming general election.
In addition to Harris’ presidential bid, dozens of Black women are running for president, including U.S. Senate candidates Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland.
According to Higher Heights for America, approx 600 black women will likely be on the ballot in Tuesday’s general election.
Glynda Carr, co-founder and president of the Higher Heights Leadership Fund, said this historic moment in which black women rose and fell in the elections was “ten years in the making.”
Since 2014, when Higher Heights and the Center for American Women in Politics officially monitored the status of black women in politics, it has seen a “gradual increase in the number of black women.”
Statistics from 2014 show that “only 18 black women have served in Congress. We now have 31 of them,” Carr emphasized.
In 2016, Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate and Lisa Blunt Rochester was elected to the House of Representatives. Now Angela Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester, together with Harris, have created what women’s advocates call a “pipeline” through which other black women can run.
If each Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks are elected to their respective Senate races, it should be the first time in history that more than one black woman has served in the upper house of Congress at one time.
Carr believes the first Black woman winner announced Tuesday night will likely be Blunt Rochester of Delaware. Polls indicate that Blunt Rochester, the current Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, suggestions his Republican opponent by more than 20%.
As we consider the historical possibilities of this election, additionally it is essential to recollect the legacy of former U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for president in 1972. Chisholm predicted that women and minorities would find a better path in politics “because I helped pave it.”
In 1974 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Chisholm he said“Black women have an obligation to move from the periphery of organized politics to its mainstream arena.”
Boykin-Towns clearly points out that historically, Black women have been the backbone of many social and political movements, and their perspectives are invaluable in shaping policies geared toward ensuring equality and justice for all.
“For the first time, we are seeing Black women in places where they can influence decisions on key issues like health care, economic reform, criminal justice and voting rights,” said Boykin-Towns, the highest-ranking Black woman in the society’s leadership NAACP. “This visibility not only inspires future generations, but also challenges old barriers in politics, demonstrating that diverse voices are essential to a strong democracy.”