Overview:
From governor's mansions to the U.S. Senate, Black women achieved unprecedented electoral gains in 2026. But Higher Heights president Glynda C. Carr says the real measure of progress will be whether those breakthroughs lead to lasting political power.
Two and a half centuries.
That’s how long it took for voters in a U.S. state to choose a Black woman as governor. On Election Night 2026, Georgia finally did it. Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta’s former mayor, shattered a 250-year-old barrier — one of the oldest in American politics — to become the first Black woman ever elected governor of a state.
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She was not alone. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Stacey Plaskett, a seasoned lawyer who has represented the Caribbean territory in the House of Representatives since 2015, won her race for governor, marking another extraordinary milestone for Black women’s executive leadership.
Two Black women. Two historic victories. One unmistakable message: Black women are not waiting for history to be made. We are making it.
Bigger Than Two Races
These victories are more than historic firsts. They are proof of what Black women’s leadership, political power and determination can do for our democracy.
At Higher Heights, we have stood with Bottoms since her first campaign for mayor of Atlanta in 2017. We have proudly championed Plaskett’s leadership and her commitment to the people of the Virgin Islands. We have watched both women lead with courage, resilience and an unwavering dedication to public service. That is why this moment means so much.
The story of this election is bigger than two races. In Illinois, Juliana Stratton, the state’s lieutenant governor, won a seat in the U.S. Senate. When she is sworn in, alongside Senators Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, three Black women will serve in the Senate at the same time for the first time in the nation’s history.
We watched Black women step into executive leadership, breaking barriers that have stood for far too long.
A new generation of Black women is headed to the U.S. House, while longtime champions such as Reps. Maxine Waters of California, Terri Sewell of Alabama and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts earned new terms. At the state level, Black women won as attorneys general, secretaries of state, lieutenant governors and mayors, from Washington, D.C., to Oakland, California. Up and down the ballot, Black women stepped forward to lead, and voters answered.
None of these successes happens without Black women voters. We organize our communities. We mobilize voters. We build political power and help others win office, often without credit. When a Black woman goes to the polls, she does not go alone. She brings her family, her friends, her neighbors, her church, her sorority and her community.
This year, Black women brought that same power to bear on our own behalf. We knocked on doors, made calls, hosted gatherings, donated, volunteered and turned out. And we watched Black women step into executive leadership, breaking barriers that have stood for far too long.
The Work Continues
Still, we should be clear-eyed about what that 250-year wait tells us. Progress this slow is not inevitable progress. It is the result of barriers, underinvestment and a political system that too often asked Black women to do the work without ever offering us the seat. We are not willing to wait another 250 years for the next breakthrough.
Black women are not simply making history. We are the architects of the democracy we intend to build over the next 250 years.
Our work does not begin or end on Election Day. It is built every day — by recruiting and training candidates, investing early in leadership, building community and making sure Black women have the resources to run and win at every level of government. Governors.-elect Bottoms and Plaskett did not arrive here alone, and the women who follow them should not have to either.
Their victories have opened doors and expanded what is possible. Somewhere on election night, a Black girl watched a woman who looks like her claim a governor’s office and learned that there is no office beyond her reach.
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So yes, we celebrate. Then we get back to work building a democracy that fully reflects the leadership, voices and power of Black women.
When Black women lead, history changes. This year, it changed for good.
Glynda C. Carr is president and CEO of Higher Heights for America, the political home for Black women.
