Downballot Races Matter: Other Notable Elections With Black Candidates Poised To Win

There has been no shortage of news coverage emphasizing how important the presidential election is as voters choose between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

It goes without saying that the presidential election has vast apparent implications for people whose skin bears a darker hue as one candidate has vowed to be a president for all Americans while the other has complicitly run a campaign of division, hatred, racism and other similarly negative qualities.

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Black voters have been put front and center for the presidential election, and rightfully so. However, the presidential election is far from the only election on Tuesday in which Black voters have a vested interest. There are certain ballot measures, like the one in California, that would reverse criminal justice reforms; the five states that will vote to make slavery illegal; and the 10 states where abortion rights are at stake.

Beyond those issues, there are races with Black candidates who have been part of the national discourse in recent months, for better or for worse, that Black voters may want to keep their eyes on as election results roll in.

Notably, the nation could elect four U.S. Senators who are Black, including three women. There have only been 12 Black Senators in American history.

Keep reading to find other races for Black America to be aware of.

Colin Allred for U.S. Senate

U.S. Rep. Colin Allred dominated the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Texas to secure his Party’s nomination and square off against Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, whose reputation of cowardly white supremacist-informed greed precedes itself. Recent polling suggests a tight race, and at least two prominent pollsters have predicted that Cruz will “lose for sure.”

Angela Alsobrooks for U.S. Senate

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is facing Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan in a tight race in Maryland. Alsobrooks’ campaign is poised to make history by becoming the first Black woman senator from Maryland. There has only been one other Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate from any state, and she just happens to be running for president this year.

Alsobrooks enters Election Day with a commanding double-digit lead in the polls that makes her “a clear favorite,” according to WMAR in Baltimore.

Wesley Bell for U.S. Congress

Wesley Bell, the first African American district attorney for St. Louis County in Missouri, is largely expected to win his Congressional race after beating incumbent Rep. Cori Bush in the state’s primary under controversial circumstances.

The Democrat was already resented among activists for breaking a campaign promise to prosecute police officers involved in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson before it was reported that the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC embraced by MAGA Republicans poured a historic amount of money into his campaign war chest to defeat Bush, who has a background in grassroots activism.

After Bell won the primary in August, critics labeled him a “sellout” with empty “progressive promises.”

Lisa Rochester Blunt for U.S. Senate

While Alsobrooks is in a contested election, Congresswoman Lisa Rochester Blunt of Delaware is running unopposed and will for certain become the next Black woman U.S. Senator and the first woman and first Black U.S. Senator in Delaware history.

Mark Robinson for Governor

Not very Black candidate listed here is expected to win. After all, what can be said about North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson that hasn’t already been said? The Republican gubernatorial candidate and North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor with an established track record of hatred has most recently called for political violence and been the subject of credible reports involving an unfortunate collision of anti-Black racism and online pornography. It is decidedly in that context that Trump has all but withdrawn his endorsement of Robinson, who’s tumbled down the polls in an election he is almost guaranteed to lose.

Lateefah Simon for Congress

In a campaign season replete with Black history, more of it is expected to be made in California when Lateefah Simon declares victory in the state’s 12th Congressional District, which has been represented by Barbara Lee since 1998. Simon is a Bay Area Rapid Transit official who was endorsed by Lee, who lost her primary U.S. Senate bid in March. Simon’s uncontested election will mean the Bay Area will have been represented by a Black Congresswoman for nearly 40 consecutive years.

Fani Willis for Fulton County District Attorney

One election seemingly flying under the radar is the race for Fulton County District Attorney, an office that has been in the national news discourse for a sweeping criminal indictment against Trump stemming from the 2020 election. Incumbent DA Fani Willis brought the charges in the summer of 2023 that Trump’s lawyers ultimately used to cite a conflict of interest that has stalled the case indefinitely. Willis is facing former Trump White House staffer Courtney Kramer, who the DA predicted will “lose badly.”

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