United States Senate to seat two newly elected Black women

Women have pushed barriers, and this election season, the nation has seen two black women achieve something historic. Voters, for the first time, elected two Black women to serve simultaneously in the Senate and sent an openly transgender lawmaker to Congress on Nov. 5.
Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks prevailed in their races, doubling the number of Black women elected to the U.S. Senate – from two to four. And Delaware voters elected Sarah McBride in an at-large House race, making her the first openly transgender person elevated to Congress.
“Marking these milestones does two things: One, it celebrates the increasing diversity that we are seeing in women’s political representation, whether in state or nationally,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.
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, as well a Democrat and former executive of Prince George’s County, Md., is the first Black woman to represent her state in the Senate.
“We have to work ten times harder just to prove we belong.” Jemele Hill, Journalist, said during a panel discussion on Black women in politics and media. “ It’s the clear uneven playing field in elections when women, especially Black women, are running against men, and you’re seeing it during this election.” This panel discussion was held before the presidential election was finalized.
Hill acknowledged that the quality of journalism, or the lack thereof, significantly influences the narratives surrounding elections and women’s positions in leadership. “We live in a time when anyone can purchase a microphone, share their opinions, and promote a narrative without evidence or integrity,” She said. “There is no standard or gatekeeping in the media landscape.”
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 percent,” 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 have been defeated, often by fellow Democrats in primaries, because we were dismissed as being unelectable,” Allison said.
Allison added that the tactics other politicians take to dismiss Black women are outdated and no longer a factor as the public sees through it. Some of the things that stumped us are kind of baked into a system that has kept Black women out of the Senate. We have figured out additional paths to be successful.”