This Duo Wants to Turn the Most Reliable Voters—Black Women—Into Candidates

[Starry Messenger]

https://www.colorlines.com/articles/duo-wants-turn-most-reliable-voters%E2%80%94black-women%E2%80%94-candidates

<snip>

With a focus on voter engagement and leadership development, Higher Heights supports Black women candidates with strong progressive agendas, those who champion policies such as equal pay, paid family leave and reproductive health access. It also considers who has the strongest chance of winning. This election cycle, Higher Heights is focused on the U.S. Senate. It endorsed two of the five Black women running for a seat, Maryland U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards and Harris. Edwards lost her primary in May making Harris the group's current priority.

Statistics for Black women in elected office are pretty abysmal. A 2015 report by Higher Heights assessed the landscape:

Despite being 7.4% of the U.S. population, Black women are just 3.4% of Congress, less than 1% of statewide elected executive officials, 3.5% of state legislators, and 1.9% of mayors in cities with populations over 30,000. Four Black women serve as mayors in the 100 largest cities in the United States. Historically, only 35 Black women from 15 states have ever served in the U.S. Congress, only 10 Black women from 9 states have ever served in statewide elected executive offices, and three states have still never elected a Black woman to their state legislature.

Black women's underrepresentation in office comes within the context of their extremely high voting rates. With 64 percent voting in 2008 and 74 percent in 2012, Black women have the highest voter turnout of any race/gender subgroup in the U.S. "Black women come to the polls because we recognize the importance of government," says Peeler-Allen. "I think we’re now just coming up on the first generation who may not have someone in their household who was part of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s still a really fresh battle to get the right to vote."

<snip>

[Number23]

1. We have many amazing sisters in this very forum that would be absolute blessings to this country's

political environment.

Black women understand America, the REAL America, better than anyone else. And we have the hearts, souls and minds to help make things better.

[Number23]

2. Dupe!