Correction: This article corrects that Charles Booker in 2020 ran in a race in which Sen. Mitch McConnell was up for reelection and corrects the office sought by Andrea Campaign to attorney general.
Hundreds of Black candidates are running in this year’s election cycle — and many are looking to make history as the first Black elected official in their respective races.
“I’ve never seen a crop of more talented, hard-working and viable Black candidates than I have seen in this election cycle,” said Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, political director of The Collective PAC, an organization working to build Black political power.
“I think the tide really shifted after George Floyd was murdered,” Olasanoye continued. “A lot of Black folks around the country have been looking around to find folks who they could support, who they could get behind to run for office, and started looking in the mirror and seeing what President Obama always said, which is: We are the change we have been waiting for.”
Now, he added, Black candidates “are running literally everywhere.” And the Collective has endorsed nearly 200 of those candidates around the country.
Here are seven Black candidates trying to make history this year.
Mandela Barnes
In 2018, Milwaukee-born Mandela Barnes made history as Wisconsin’s first Black lieutenant governor — and only the second Black official elected statewide. This year, he’s hoping to make history again as Wisconsin’s first Black senator.
And with Democrats desperate to retain their razor-thin majority, Barnes has garnered the attention of some of the party’s top names. Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have all endorsed him.
In the days before the primary Tuesday, Barnes’s Democratic rivals suspended their campaigns and rallied around the 35-year-old candidate, essentially clearing the path for his nomination.
Now Barnes will face off against Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.
Johnson, a two-term incumbent, faced little opposition in the Republican primary and was backed by former President Trump. Before Tuesday’s primary, Johnson criticized Barnes as a “progressive puppet out to fundamentally change America” with policies too liberal for the Badger State.
But a June poll by Marquette Law School showed Barnes leading Johnson 46 percent to 44 percent, indicating this race is set to be one of the most closely watched this year.
Cheri Beasley
Like Barnes, Cheri Beasley has already made history in her state of North Carolina. In 2019, she became the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Now, she’s looking to be the state’s first Black female senator.
Though Beasley easily won her primary after her leading competitor dropped out of the race last year, she still has her work cut out for her going into November.
The last time North Carolina went blue was for former President Obama in 2008.
Beasley is running for Sen. Richard Burr’s (R) seat. Burr, who served 16 years as a senator, was censured in a unanimous vote by the North Carolina Republican Party in 2021 for his vote to convict former President Trump in the second impeachment trial.
She has outraised her Republican competitor, Rep. Ted Budd (R), $15.9 million to $6.3 million, according to Spectrum News.
And following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a June SurveyUSA poll showed voters supported her 44 percent to Budd’s 40 percent – in part due to Beasley’s stance on gun control.
Much like Wisconsin’s race, Beasley’s success could ensure Democratic control for the next two years.
Charles Booker
In 2020, Charles Booker rose to national prominence for his racial justice-centered Senate campaign in Kentucky. But Booker failed to defeat incumbent Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, then majority leader, that year.
That hasn’t dissuaded Booker, who’s back this year to once again try to become Kentucky’s first Black senator.
Booker has been focused on using his identity as a middle-class Black man to build a coalition of Black voters. Recently, that identity stirred up controversy over an anti-racist campaign ad.
In the ad, Booker stood with a noose around his neck as he called out Paul for voting against the Emmett Till Antilynching Act and implied the incumbent was sowing division.
But despite his increased name recognition — from the ad and from his 2020 campaign — it’ll be a tough run for Booker.
Paul is a two-term incumbent, and the state hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1992.
Meanwhile, Booker’s platform of “Medicare for All,” as well as environmental, economic and racial justice, has been ridiculed by Paul and other Republicans as a “socialist” agenda, with policies too far left to be in the interest of Kentuckians.
Andrea Campbell
Seven years ago, Andrea Campbell became the first woman to represent her district on the Boston City Council. Then, in 2018, she made history again when she was elected as the first Black female city council president.
Now running for Massachusetts attorney general, she’s looking to make history a third time — as the state’s first Black woman elected to a statewide office.
Campbell’s goals include creating equitable ,affordable health care and housing; criminal justice reform and better economic opportunities.
Her stance has won her the approval of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), among others.
And she’s teaming up with other potential first-time winners, too.
Last week, Campbell hit the streets with Massachusetts’ current Attorney General Maura Healey, who’s campaigning to be the state’s first female governor and the nation’s first openly lesbian governor.
But come November, Campbell will face off against two other strong Democratic candidates: Shannon Liss-Riordan, a workers’ rights attorney, and Quentin Palfrey, a former assistant attorney general.
Palfrey also previously worked in former President Obama’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and as the acting general counsel for the Department of Commerce for President Biden.
Palfrey won the state Democratic Party’s endorsement, according to the Boston Globe.
Deidre DeJear
There has never been a Black female governor elected in any state. But Deidre DeJear is looking to change that in her bid for Iowa governor.
Born in Mississippi and raised in Oklahoma, DeJear moved to Iowa for college before co-founding the nonprofit Back to School Iowa. Now running for governor, DeJear is pushing an agenda for economic development through new jobs, voter rights and affordable health care.
But she’ll have to unseat Republican incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds to accomplish those goals, and it’s sure to be an uphill battle.
Republicans have been in the governor’s mansion since 2011. Reynolds’s 2017 election led to her becoming the state’s first female governor. She ran unopposed in this year’s primary.
In mid-July, a poll by The Des Moines Register found Reynolds leads DeJear by 17 percentage points. And that’s on top of the financial advantage Reynolds holds over DeJear.
The Iowa Torch in July reported Reynolds raised $633,024.33 since the primary, filling her coffers with $5.2 million. DeJear, though, only raised $255,746 during the same period. She has only $503,314.54 in the bank.
Jennifer-Ruth Green
Along with Black Democrats, Black Republicans are looking to make history this year too. In Indiana, Jennifer-Ruth Green is looking to bring the skills she learned in the Air Force to the U.S. House of Representatives.
If she’s elected in November, she would be the only Black female Republican in the House.
Touting a platform of “America First” foreign policy, a free-market economy and pro-life legislation, Green has won the endorsement of former CIA Director Mike Pompeo and potential 2024 presidential contender Nikki Haley.
Green won the Indiana GOP primary with more than 45 percent of the vote. Now, she’ll face off against moderate Democrat incumbent Frank Mrvan, a first-term representative.
But Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, which encompasses most of Indiana’s side of the Chicago metropolitan area, has remained blue for decades. And Mrvan beat his Republican competitors in 2020 with more than 56 percent of the vote.
Still, Green stands some chance: She raised over $650,000 in the second quarter, outraising Mrvan by nearly $300,000. And in June, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Mrvan to its incumbent protection program.
Wes Moore
In Maryland, Army veteran and bestselling author Wes Moore is campaigning to be the state’s first Black governor.
After a crowded primary season saw 10 candidates try to secure the Democratic nomination, Moore pulled ahead with nearly 34 percent of the vote.
Moore will take on Trump-endorsed Republican Dan Cox, a right-wing member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
Democrats feel strongly about Moore’s chances, with the Democratic Governors Association spending more than $1 million to air an ad intended to help Cox win the primary by stressing his Trump endorsement and his support of the “stolen election” lie.
Meanwhile, Moore had his campaign boosted by Oprah Winfrey and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), among others.
Updated 11:17 p.m.