Black women are making historic victories in the Senate in an election year marked by potential firsts

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time ever, two Black women were elected Tuesday to serve in the U.S. Senate, as voters also sent a transgender lawmaker to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland prevailed in their races, doubling the number of black women ever elected to the Senate — from two to four. Delaware voters also elected Sarah McBride to a seat in the at-large House, making her the first openly transgender person elevated to Congress.

These historic firsts were among nearly a dozen races that showed Americans opting for more diverse representation in elected office, even as issues like affirmative action and LGBTQ inclusion have pushed some partisans further into their ideological corners.

“Marking these milestones does two things: first, it celebrates the increasing diversity we see in women’s political representation, whether state or national,” said Kelly Dittmar, research director at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. .

“But at the same time, it reminds us that we still have more work to do,” Dittmar said, noting that American women generally are not fairly represented in elected office and that Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, as well as Native Americans, remain behind their share of the population.

Black women are making history in the U.S. Senate

Never have two black women served in the Senate at the same time. Kamala Harris was only the second Black woman and the first South Asian woman to serve in the Senate before being elected vice president. From 2021 to 2023, there was no representation of Black women in the chamber until California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to a vacancy created by the death of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Blunt Rochester, a Democrat who currently represents Delaware’s at-large congressional district, will become the first woman and first Black person to represent Delaware in the Senate. Alsobrooks, a Democrat and former executive of Prince George’s County, Maryland, is also the first Black woman to represent her state in the Senate.

Their victories increase the number of Black members of the Senate to five, the most to serve together in history. Yet historically, the 100 members of the Senate have historically been and remain primarily white men.

“We increased our representation of Black women in the Senate by 100%,” said Aimee Allison, founder and president of She the People, a national organizing center for recruiting and electing women of color in politics.

“I have been in electoral politics for 30 years, and for the vast majority of that time, Black women have played an outsized role as voters and organizers, only to be defeated, often by fellow Democrats in the primaries, because we were dismissed as unelectable are,” Allison said.

“It’s a testament to the evolution of Black women as political players in this country,” Allison added. “Some of the things that have stunned us are embedded in a system that has kept Black women out of the Senate. We have come up with additional ways to be successful.”

House gets its first transgender member

McBride, a Democratic senator in Delaware, already made history in 2020 when she was elected the nation’s only openly transgender senator. That followed a surge in national recognition for McBride, who became the first transgender speaker to address a major party convention at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Her elevation to Congress comes at a time when transgender issues are becoming divisive in American politics. From a ban on biological males competing in women’s and girls’ sports and a ban on books with LGBTQ themes, to debates over gender-affirming pronouns and gender-neutral bathrooms, transgender visibility in politics could keep these issues at the forefront of debates about acceptance and tolerance.

After winning her primary in September, McBride said she was not running for Congress to make history, but instead “to make historic progress for the people of Delaware.”

Advocates welcome the progress but point to the work ahead for representation

In the fifty years since the Center for American Women and Politics began tracking gender equality and racial diversity in politics, progress often comes when Democrats do better in the election cycle.

“We haven’t seen the same gains in the Republican Party,” said Kelly, the center’s research director. “It is very clear that it is a one-sided story. And if we want to achieve gender parity in elected office, it’s going to be difficult to do that on one side of the aisle, just numerically.”

Allison said the youngest generation of future American voters may not always view racial and gender diversity as crucial if long-standing issues of social and economic inequality are not addressed by their parents’ generation.

“You can’t just discuss representation,” she said. “It’s hard to do that because it’s not enough. The first step in creating this multiracial democracy is creating an American government that serves all people.”