A record 60 Black women are running for Congress this year, in what one candidate calls a “chance to change our history,” Reuters reports.
The news service says that “at least 122 Black or multi-racial Black women … filed for congressional seats in this year’s election, with 60 of them still in the running as primary season ends.” The previous record was 48, in 2012.
There are currently 24 African American women in the House, two of them non-voting Delegates, and one Senator, according to the Congressional Research Service.
One is Joyce Elliott, an Arkansas state senator who would become the first Black member of Congress ever to represent that state.
“I really decided I needed to run because I could see a pathway to winning,” and making a significant contribution to history, she said.
Reuters notes that while Black women are nearly 8% of the U.S. population, they hold only 4.3% of seats in Congress, citing a report by the Center of Women and Politics and Higher Heights for America, a political action committee supporting progressive Black women candidates.
Significantly, Black women voters had the highest participation rate any group in the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012, when they were a key force behind Barack Obama’s victories.
“Historically, Black women have been more likely to win in majority-Black districts, but many are running this cycle in majority white or mixed districts, some of which had previously voted for Republicans,” Reuters says.
In Indiana, Jeannine Lee Lake, a former journalist, is running against Republican Rep. Greg Pence, Vice President Mike Pence’s brother.
She’s one of several of the candidates who told Reuters they “relate to voters better than their often wealthier opponents” because they’ve lived through financial hardship.
The Black women candidates cited by the news agency are likely to get an Election-Day boost from Joe Biden, who enjoys solid leads over President Trump in nearly all polls.
“We’re going to flip this seat from red to blue,” said Patricia Timmons-Goodson, the first Black judge to serve on the state Supreme Court and a former member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.