By Annie Karni
There was Carol Moseley Braun, the Illinois Democrat who in 1992 became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Nearly a quarter-century would pass before Kamala Harris became the second, in 2016. Seven more years would go by before the third Black woman was sworn in, after Laphonza Butler was appointed.
None of them overlapped in the Senate, each serving as the sole Black woman in the overwhelmingly white and male 100-member chamber sometimes referred to as the world’s greatest deliberative body.
All that may be about to change in what Democrats are hoping to make the year of the Black woman in the Senate. With two Black women in strong positions to claim open Senate seats in blue states — and Ms. Harris now at the top of the ticket — they are preparing for what they regard as a long-overdue moment when their numbers could double, even if only to two.
“I’m so excited that we are about to move beyond the acceptance of having just one,” said Ms. Butler, a California Democrat, speaking on Friday at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in downtown Washington. “We’re going to be bold enough to send two.”
Ms. Butler, who is not running for re-election, was seated next to Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, Democrat of Delaware, who is all but assured to win the seat being vacated by Senator Thomas R. Carper.
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