History Is on the Midterm Ballot, and Black Women Candidates Are Writing It

By Glynda C. Carr and Kelly Dittmar

In the 250 years since the nation’s founding, no state has elected a Black woman governor. And no more than two Black women have ever served in the U.S. Senate at the same time.

On November 3, both of those facts could change.

In Georgia, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is running to become the nation’s first Black woman governor and Georgia’s first woman governor. Minnesota House Speaker Lisa DeMuth is the Republican nominee in Minnesota’s all-woman contest for governor, where she too would make history at the state and national level if successful against Democratic headwinds.

In Illinois, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton is favored to win an open Senate seat. If she does, she will join Senators Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, and for the first time in American history, three Black women will serve together in the Senate. Stratton is one of a record-tying four Black women Senate nominees, alongside Florida state Representative Angie Nixon, Marquita Bradshaw in Tennessee, and Jasmine Thomas in Oklahoma.

These milestones are built on generations of Black women organizing, voting and building power. New data from Higher Heights Leadership Fund, compiled by long-time research partner, the Center for American Women and Politic shows that momentum is real: 72 Black women are nominees this year for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, and statewide executive offices combined.

The candidates tell the story. Among those Black women most favored to join the U.S. House next year, Georgia state Representative Jasmine Clark holds a Ph.D. in microbiology. Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller brings years of local government leadership. Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York and Melat Kiros in Colorado, both doctoral students, each defeated a sitting incumbent in their Democratic primaries. Kiros would be the first Black woman to represent Colorado in Congress. Three of the four are under 45.

They are not waiting their turn. They are taking it.

That energy reaches down the ballot, to offices that rarely make headlines but shape daily life: attorneys general who enforce the law, secretaries of state who run elections, treasurers who protect public money. In Georgia, Black women make up eight of the state’s ten Democratic nominees for statewide executive office. In New York, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams could become the state’s first Black woman elected lieutenant governor. In Nevada, Tya Mathis-Coleman could become the first Black woman elected to any statewide executive office.

The data also show where the next breakthroughs must come. The number of Black women running for the House jumped to 114 this year, up from 88 in 2024, but nominations dipped from 43 to 40. Of the 17 non-incumbent Black women House nominees, four are running in districts where they are favored; the other 13 are in districts that strongly favor the other party. With four Black women House members retiring, forecasts put Black women’s House representation in 2027 at 27, holding steady but two short of the record.

Black women’s willingness to run is clear. What’s needed now are more open doors to winnable races.

Hard-won gains must also be protected. Black women hold nine statewide executive offices today, down from a record 11 first set in 2023, and at least one new winner is needed to hold that level. In state legislatures, 403 Black women serve, one short of the all-time high, and at least 48 newcomers must win just to hold steady. Representation is not a trophy on a shelf. It is won again every election.

This cycle also honors trailblazers stepping away: Representatives Frederica Wilson, Robin Kelly, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Jasmine Crockett, and Delegates Eleanor Holmes Norton and Stacey Plaskett, who is now running for governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Their service helped prepare the women running today.

Building on this moment means party leaders, donors, and political organizations recruiting and investing in Black women for open, winnable seats, not only long shots. It means building Black women’s representation and power in the state and local offices where future senators and governors get their start. And it means measuring success not just by who appears on the ballot, but by who takes office and stays there.

Historic firsts change what Americans picture when they think of a senator or a governor. This November could deliver several. The work ahead is making sure they are not the last.

History is on the ballot this November, and Black women are writing it.

Glynda C. Carr is President and CEO of Higher Heights Leadership Fund, and its sister organization Higher Heights for America, a national organization is investing in a long-term strategy to analyze, expand and support a Black women’s leadership pipeline at all levels.

Kelly Dittmar is Director of Research at the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers-Camden.