Run Sister, Run!
A Record Number of Black Women are Running for Congress in 2020
A record number of 130 Black women have registered to run for congress this year, with 98 as Democrats, and 32 as Republicans. The lion share look to secure a seat in the U. S. House of Representatives – 117 (89D, 28R), with 13 (9D, 4R) pursuing a place in the U. S. Senate. This is the largest number of Black women seeking to get elected to Congress in a single election.
In 2018, five new Black women were elected to the House, including three who were the first women of color to represent their states in Congress – Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Jahana Hayes (D-CT). Four of the five freshman Black women members of the 116th Congress (2019-2021) were elected in majority-white districts. In 2020, history will most likely be made once again as Cori Bush is set to become the first Black woman to represent the state of Missouri. And Nikema Williams is set to fill the seat vacated by the death of Representative John Lewis.
Currently 24 Black women reside in the halls of Congress, not including those serving as House non-voting delegates (Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC; Stacey Plaskett, D-VI). There have been 47 African-American women who have served in Congress. The first African-American woman elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm of New York, won election to the House in 1968. Thus far, only two Black women have served in the Senate with Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois being the first in 1992. Senator Kamala Harris is the other.
