Black women notch historic Senate wins in an election year defined by potential firsts

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

Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks 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 an at-large House seat, making her the first openly transgender person elevated to Congress.

These historic firsts were among nearly a dozen races that showed Americans choosing more diverse representation in elected offices, even as issues such as affirmative action and LGBTQ inclusion have driven some partisans farther into their ideological corners.

“Marking these milestones does two things: One, it celebrates the increasing diversity that we are seeing in women’s political representation, whether it be in a state or nationally,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.

“But at the same time, it reminds us that we have more work to do,” said Dittmar, noting that U.S. women overall aren’t represented equitably in elected offices and that Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, as well as Native Americans, lag behind their share of the population.

Black women make history in the U.S. Senate

Never in the Senate have two Black women served at the same time. Kamala Harris was only the second Black woman and first South Asian woman to serve in the Senate, before she was elected vice president. From 2021 to 2023, the chamber was without Black female representation until California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to a vacancy created by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Blunt Rochester, a Democrat who currently represents the at-large congressional district of Delaware, becomes 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 raise the number of Black members of the Senate to five, the most to serve together in history. Still, the Senate’s 100 members have historically been, and continue to be, mostly 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 hub for recruiting and electing women of color in politics.

“I’ve 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, but had been defeated, often by fellow Democrats in primaries, because we were dismissed as being unelectable,” 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 stumped us are kind of baked into a system that have kept Black women out of the Senate. We have figured out additional paths to be successful.”

House to get first transgender member

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

Her elevation to Congress comes at a time when transgender issues have proven divisive in American politics. From bans on biological males playing in women’s and girls’ sports and bans on books with LGBTQ themes, to debates over gender-affirming pronouns and gender-neutral bathrooms, visibility of transgender people in politics could keep those 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 Delawareans.”

Advocates welcome progress, but note the work ahead for representation

In the 50 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 have not seen those same levels of gains in the Republican Party,” said Kelly, the center’s research director. “It’s very clear that it’s kind of a one-sided story. And if we want to get to gender parity in elected office, it’s going to be hard to do that on one side of the aisle, just numerically.”

Allison said the youngest generation of future American voters may not always see racial and gender diversity as a crucial, if longstanding problems of social and economic inequality go unaddressed by their parents’ generation.

“You can’t make an argument about representation only,” 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.”