Warnock win unleashes flood of Black candidates
Raphael Warnock’s Senate victory in Georgia has opened the floodgates to a surge of African American Senate candidates, raising the prospect that the 2022 midterm elections could dramatically alter the face of a chamber that is currently 89 percent white.
While it’s too early in the election cycle to know exactly how many Black candidates will run for the Senate, a growing number have either launched formal bids or are seriously considering running in at least a half-dozen states. Many are state legislators or local elected officials who might have been dissuaded from running in the past, or viewed a statewide victory as implausible.
Fueling the burst is an unusually fluid Senate map that already features five open seat races. But prospective candidates and political strategists point to other catalytic factors — foremost among them, Warnock’s upset victory in January in a red, Deep South state that had never elected an African American to the Senate.
“I think this idea that Black candidates can’t win statewide and young candidates can’t win statewide in difficult races was just disproven in Georgia,” said Malcolm Kenyatta, a 30-year-old Black state representative who is running in Pennsylvania. “We have the Senate majority because a young guy and a Black guy helped us take the two seats we needed.”
Warnock is more than just an inspiration for some of these candidates — he’s also served as a mentor and a clearinghouse of information on running for the Senate. The senator confirmed that he has spoken with several prospective African American congressional candidates about potential bids, saying the chamber “does not suffer from an overwhelming amount of diversity.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/16/raphael-warnock-2022-black-candidates-476306
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