Seven Black women have launched Senate campaigns for 2026. This is an unprecedented surge that could result in the most Black women ever serving simultaneously in the upper chamber.
Only five Black women have ever held Senate seats in American history. Currently, two—Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE)—are serving together for the first time. A single victory next November would set a new record. Multiple wins would be seismic.
Here are the candidates and the barriers they could break:
Texas: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D), a civil-rights attorney and second-term congresswoman, is challenging Sen. John Cornyn (R). Victory would make her Texas’s first Black senator—ever.
Illinois: Lt. Gov. Julianna Stratton (D) and Rep. Robin Kelly (D) are both vying for retiring Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D) seat. Either would be the first Black woman to represent Illinois in the Senate since Carol Moseley Braun left office in 1999.
Kentucky: State Rep. Pamela Stevenson (D), a retired Air Force colonel, is running to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R). A win would mark Kentucky’s first Black member of Congress of any kind.
Mississippi: Educator and social-justice activist Priscilla Williams Till (D)—cousin of Emmett Till—is taking on Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R). Mississippi has not elected a Black senator since Reconstruction in the 1870s.
Oklahoma: Nurse and military spouse Nikyla Jasmine Thomas (D) is challenging Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R). Success would make her both the state’s first Black senator and its first Black and Native American woman senator.
South Carolina: Author and historic-preservation activist Katherine Fleming Bruce (D) is running against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R). The state has never elected a Black woman to the Senate.
All seven are competing in Democratic primaries first, with general elections in November 2026.
The current Senate has 100 members and only four women of color total. Political analysts note that while several of these races are long shots in red-leaning states, Illinois is considered solidly Democratic and Texas has become more competitive.
A Crockett or Illinois victory alone would be historic; multiple wins would reshape the chamber’s demographic portrait overnight.
Civil rights advocates and women’s groups have already begun mobilising for fundraising and voter registration, framing 2026 as a potential turning point for representation. The outcome will hinge on turnout, national political winds, and whether Democratic primary voters consolidate behind one candidate in contested states.
Whatever happens, the sheer number of Black women stepping forward—many of them first-time Senate candidates from diverse professions—signals a new chapter in American political ambition.
