{"id":274111,"date":"2020-11-05T00:11:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T05:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=274111"},"modified":"2020-11-05T00:11:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T05:11:29","slug":"more-women-and-more-black-women-than-ever-ran-for-congress-in-2020-but-they-still-lost-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/11\/05\/more-women-and-more-black-women-than-ever-ran-for-congress-in-2020-but-they-still-lost-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"More women and more Black women than ever ran for Congress in 2020, but they still lost ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Pressley at a townhall for Elizabeth Warren in November 2019 (Photo:<\/a> Elizabeth Warren\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2020, Black women set a new record \u2013 117 entered primaries for the House and 13 for the U.S. Senate<\/a>, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.<\/p>\n

In total, 643 women were candidates in congressional primary and general elections<\/a>, including a record number of Asian or Pacific Islander, Latina, Middle Eastern or North African and Native American women.<\/p>\n

Still, women ended up losing eight seats in Congress. In 2018, the nation elected 127 women \u2013 and 48 women of color<\/a> \u2013 to the House and Senate. This year, that dropped to 117 women and 45 women of color.<\/p>\n

Throughout my career as a political science professor<\/a>, I\u2019ve studied women\u2019s representation in mayoral, congressional, gubernatorial and presidential elections.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my look at the female demographics of Congress following the 2020 elections.<\/p>\n

Freshmen no more<\/h2>\n

Many of the women first elected to Congress in 2018 retained their seats.<\/p>\n

All four members of \u201cthe Squad\u201d were reelected<\/a>. These women \u2013 Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib<\/a> \u2013 are Democratic women of color known for their progressive policies, including the Green New Deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also reelected were Illinois Democrat Lauren Underwood<\/a>, winner of a predominantly white and Republican district in 2018; Jahana Hayes, the first Black woman to represent Connecticut; and Georgia\u2019s Lucy McBath, winner in a district that had been held by Republicans for almost four decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These reelections prove that their victories in 2018\u2019s \u201cpink wave\u201d<\/a> weren\u2019t a fluke and that they have real staying power in Congress.<\/p>\n

In some of the 2020 congressional races, Black women ran against each other<\/a> \u2013 a sign of their strong participation. For example, Florida\u2019s Val Demings<\/a>, Florida\u2019s Frederica Wilson<\/a> and Georgia\u2019s Nikema Williams<\/a> \u2013 who will succeed the late civil rights icon John Lewis<\/a> \u2013 won their congressional races after defeating other Black females.<\/p>\n

Notable newcomers<\/h2>\n

Some women will be joining Congress for the first time in January.<\/p>\n

Cori Bush<\/a>, a Black Lives Matter activist, became Missouri\u2019s first Black female congresswoman and represents a district that includes the cities of St. Louis and Ferguson, the site of the police killing of African American teenager Michael Brown<\/a> in 2014. Ferguson also elected its first Black female mayor this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bush defeated African American Congressman William Lacy Clay Jr.<\/a>. Clay, Jr. and his father<\/a> represented the district for over 50 years.<\/p>\n

Other women of color joining Congress for the first time include Telemundo journalist Maria Elvira Salazar<\/a>, a Republican who unseated Donna Shalala in Florida, and attorney Teresa Fernandez<\/a>, a Democrat from New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Some underdogs didn\u2019t make it<\/h2>\n

So who lost?<\/p>\n

Arkansas\u2019s Joyce Elliott<\/a>, a teacher and veteran state legislator, came up short in her bid to become the first African American congressional member from Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s Pam Keith, a military veteran and attorney, lost by a wide margin to her Republican opponent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Patricia Timmons-Goodson<\/a>, the first African American member of the North Carolina Supreme Court whose federal judicial nomination by Barack Obama was blocked by Republicans, failed to win a seat in Congress.<\/p>\n

Also coming up short was Tennessee\u2019s Marquita Bradshaw<\/a>, a single mother and environmental activist who would have been Tennessee\u2019s first Black female congressional member if she had won.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s Tamika Hamilton<\/a>, Georgia\u2019s Vivian Childs, Maryland\u2019s Kimberly Klacik and Ohio\u2019s Lavern Gore are all Republicans who ran in mostly urban Democratic districts<\/a>, but none won on election night. All Black female congresswomen \u2013 with the exception of Utah\u2019s Mia Love<\/a>, who served one term in the House \u2013 have been Democrats, suggesting that the path to victory is especially steep for Black Republican women.<\/p>\n

A white man\u2019s government?<\/h2>\n
\"Three<\/a>
The caption of this 1868 cartoon read, \u2018This is a white man\u2019s government. We regard the Reconstruction Acts (so called) of Congress as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void – Democratic Platform.\u2019<\/span>
\nWorld Cat<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For most of its history, the members of both Houses of Congress have been white men<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The monotony began to break in 1917 when Montana\u2019s Jeannette Rankin became the first female congresswoman<\/a>. In 1964, Hawaii\u2019s Patsy Mink became the first Asian American congresswoman<\/a>. The first Latina, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida<\/a>, was elected in 1989.<\/p>\n

In 1968, the late Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman to serve in Congress. Four years later, two more Black women arrived in Congress, Barbara Jordan of Texas and Yvonne Braithwaite-Burke of California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chisholm called Black women \u201ccatalysts for change\u201d<\/a> in politics. U.S. Rep Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, once tweeted<\/a>, \u201cI cannot be intimidated and I\u2019m not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw\u2019s theory of intersectionality<\/a> suggests Black women are disadvantaged because of the \u201cintersection\u201d of their racial, gender and class identities. One result is that they encounter disadvantages when running for office.<\/p>\n

Some of these women were disadvantaged by their race, gender or class when running against well-funded incumbents. Yet, my work in the field of women and politics also suggests that the long tradition of Black female political leadership in America is gaining momentum.\"The<\/p>\n

Sharon Austin<\/a>, Professor of Political Science, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2020, Black women set a new record \u2013 117 entered primaries for the House and 13 for the U.S. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":274118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-sharon-austin-university-of-florida","mauthors-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274122,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274111\/revisions\/274122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}