While most observers of Black politics will focus on the defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris for president of the U.S,, we should not neglect a silver lining to be found in the states.
Since the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Black political arena has been largely restricted to municipal and congressional districts with a sizable Black powerbase. Candidates have encountered a longstanding barrier of race in the quest for state-wide representation. Even with the unexpected dominance of Donald Trump in the presidential race, this election produced an unprecedented number of Black statewide campaigns that were able to break through historic barriers to power.
Since the end of the Obama presidency, a lingering question in Black politics has been what goals its leaders should pursue. Over the next four years, with anxiety high about a second Trump presidency, the answer may be to accrue power in the five southern states with active Black voting communities.
The proposal involves strategic migration to consolidate political, economic, and cultural capital in a Black-led polity in states of promise: Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. The states, after all, govern the most important aspects of Americans’ everyday life.
First, a shout-out to Maryland, which is arguably the new capital of Black America with the election of Angela Alsobrooks to the Senate. She joins Gov. Wes Moore and Attorney General Anthony Brown in the only state with three major executive branch offices held by representatives of the Black community.
The “Maryland Model” seeks to network a Black voting bloc among urban, suburban, and rural districts. Its latest achievement is the campaign of Democrat Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George’s County, who mobilized the state’s 30% Black voting bloc to defeat the popular and well-funded Republican former governor, Larry Hogan. She also built a coalition of supportive voting blocs among suburban white women, organized labor, students, and other interest groups.
Less high-profile, although just as effective, was the Senate campaign of Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware. The four-term member of Congress was able to leverage Delaware’s favorable Black demographic conditions to good results: The small state has a nearly 25% Black population that can provide a reliable powerbase.
The 62-year-old Rochester will become the first Black person to represent Delaware in the Senate. Only three Black women have ever served in the Senate.
North Carolina voters were faced with three Black candidates for statewide offices. In a state where Blacks comprise over 20% of the state population, voters rejected two candidates — a Democrat and a Republican — and elected a Democrat to become only the third Black person to serve in high office. Mo Green defeated Republican Michele Morrow for North Carolina superintendent of public instruction. He previously served as deputy superintendent for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, superintendent of the Guilford County Schools, and executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
Meanwhile, Democrat Jessica Holmes, the incumbent state auditor appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper, was edged out by Republican Dave Boliek. Then there was Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the firebrand GOP candidate for governor. Elected in 2021, he is the first Black politician to hold that office, and only the second ever elected statewide. His campaign was badly damaged from his insensitive statements about the culture wars and he was defeated by Democrat Josh Stein, who received overwhelming Black support.
While there was good news in other states as well, such as Alabama, where two Black candidates for Congress emerged triumphant, and Washington, where Democrat Nicholas Brown became the state’s first Black attorney general, the prospects for sustainable Black influence are best found in the five states.
There is political, economic, and cultural benefit in a strategy of migration to the five states with preconditions for Black-led political coalitions. They feature organized communities of between 20 to 30%, diverse economies, and non-Black voters who are open to alliances on certain issues. Targeted migration would help grow the Black powerbase and serve as a springboard for self-governance, cooperative economics, sustainable development, moral uplift, and community esteem.
Over the next four years, Black commercial and social media marketing should be used to recruit people interested in building power in the states. What is needed to bolster the existing communities is about 200,000 new registered voters in Maryland; 50,000 in Delaware; and 500,000 each in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. Most appropriate are people with cultural capital such as middle-class families, college students, workers with trade skills, moneyed retirees, and managers and professionals who work remotely.
Finally, to avoid weakening the voting power in blue states, the target markets should be in the red states where the Black vote is marginalized by mean racial politicking, like Texas and Florida; diminished economies, like Mississippi and Louisiana; and urban areas with shortages of affordable housing, like New York City and Los Angeles.
Roger House is professor emeritus of American studies at Emerson College and the author of “Blue Smoke: The Recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy” and “South End Shout: Boston’s Forgotten Music Scene in the Jazz Age.” His forthcoming book is “Five Hundred Years of Black Self-Governance: A Call to Conscience.” A version of this commentary was published in the Hill.
After the poor performance of Harris and the clueless leadership of Adams in NYC black politician’s need to go back to the drawing board and get a clue