Black Baptists to Democrats: Our Votes Come With Expectations

The Rev. Boise Kimber has a message for Democrats after the blue tsunami swept them to power in Congress: If you want Black voters to keep showing up for you, show them what you’ll deliver in Washington. 

For Kimber, president of National Baptist Convention USA Inc., that means passing legislation that will protect Black interests — including fair appraisals when Black families sell their homes, access to capital for Black entrepreneurs and federal protection when lawmakers gerrymander districts to dismantle Black political power. 

LEARN MORE: From the Pews to the Polls, Black Churches Are Mobilizing Voters

“Blacks will no longer be taken for granted,” Kimber said in the convention’s announcement. He said Democrats “have to work as hard for our vote as they do for any other constituency.”

Kimber laid out those demands in a new policy framework, the “Working-Class Black Agenda.” It urges Congress to act on priorities for Black America, ranging from student debt relief to a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote.

Democrats won control of the House and the Senate on Nov. 3 in a resounding repudiation of President Donald Trump, the GOP, and policy decisions that have negatively affected people’s lives and pocketbooks. While the shift signals a new era of power for Democrats, it will also set up a new set of conflicts between Congress and Trump, who still holds veto power. 

‘Political Watchdog’

Kimber said the historically Black convention plans to organize its network of more than 31,000 congregations and 7.5 million members, by his count, to press lawmakers to act on the agenda and track what they do after Election Day.

“The NBCUSA will not rely on the good faith of politicians,” Kimber said, describing the role he envisions for the denomination as “an aggressive, permanent political watchdog.”

In the 2024 presidential election, 83% of Black voters backed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and 15% supported Trump, according to a Pew Research Center study that verified turnout against voting records. The study found that the increased support Trump won from Black voters in 2024 compared with 2020 came largely from changes in who turned out.

The Baptist convention calls for a ban on deliberately splitting Black neighborhoods across voting districts and a return to federal review of proposed election changes in certain jurisdictions. That review, known as preclearance, once required many jurisdictions, particularly in the South,  to get approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before changing voting rules.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down that provision in the federal Voting Rights Act in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision.

Protecting Rights, Building Wealth

The denomination’s agenda also calls for expanding the U.S. Supreme Court from nine to 13 justices. It comes months after the nation’s highest court, on a 6-3 vote, struck down a Louisiana congressional map that had increased the state’s majority-Black districts from one to two.

In that case, Louisiana v. Callais, the court weakened protections against diluting Black voter strength by tightening the standard to challenge redistricting using Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It now requires evidence to show intentional racial discrimination in redrawing political maps.

The U.S. Constitution leaves Congress to determine the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. However, adding an explicit right to vote to the Constitution would require a constitutional amendment. That requires a two-thirds majority in each chamber of Congress to approve the proposed amendment and ratification by three-fourths of the states.

The convention’s economic proposals cover several points where families build or lose wealth. The convention wants low-interest financing for Black entrepreneurs, stronger enforcement against discriminatory home appraisals and legal protections for a federal program that helps disadvantaged business owners compete for government contracts. 

In June, the Small Business Administration proposed changing the program’s eligibility rules to require applicants to provide verifiable evidence of social disadvantage.

Curbing Corruption

The convention also calls for fully funding Title I, which directs federal education dollars to schools serving low-income students, forgiving student debt, strengthening the Affordable Care Act and advancing legislation aimed at improving Black maternal health. 

Its government ethics proposals seek to curb Trump’s ability to put his and his family’s personal interests above the nation’s by appointing family members to positions and maintaining ties to defense and manufacturing firms and tech startups that received billions of dollars in federal awards. The convention agenda calls for tighter restrictions on appointing relatives and a mechanism to freeze federal funds when executive officials steer public money to their own businesses.

RELATED: Barber Takes Moral Mondays From Protest to the Polls

The agenda also builds on work Kimber brought before the denomination last year. At its 2025 annual session, he announced partnerships with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the National Newspaper Publishers Association and World Vision US as part of a broader push to address issues facing Black communities.

In September, he urged members to turn out for the midterms, warning that gerrymandering threatened their political power. Kimber’s latest statement leaves open which proposals the convention will press first and which lawmakers it will ask to carry them. For the churches he’s counting on, the work he describes will continue long after the polls close.