No more than two Black women have ever sat in the U.S. Senate at the same time. On Tuesday, Illinois voters can make it three.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, the Democratic nominee, faces Republican Don Tracy for the Illinois seat. If she wins, she would be the fifth Black woman elected to the Senate and the sixth to serve in it, counting Laphonza Butler, who was appointed. She would join Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, who in 2025 became the first two Black women to serve together.
Illinois has done this before. In 1992 it elected Carol Moseley Braun, the first Black woman in the Senate.
Stratton won the March primary over Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who had the larger campaign fund, running on Medicare for All, a $25-an-hour minimum wage and abolishing ICE. She has said what a third seat would mean in the room where laws are written: “The idea of three means there’s that much more of an opportunity to make sure that when policy is being made, when legislation is being passed, that the voices of our community is right there at the table.” She has also pointed to her late father, who marched from Selma to Montgomery and was once barred from the Capitol.
Stratton is not the only Black woman on a Senate ballot. In Florida, state Rep. Angie Nixon won the Democratic nomination in August in an upset of the party establishment. She faces Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in a tough general election. Seven Black women, all Democrats, declared Senate bids this cycle.
Glynda Carr, president of Higher Heights for America, which works to elect Black women, has said she expects a record. “Three Black women will likely be serving in the Senate in 2027,” she said, noting the jump from one to a possible three in 15 years. Of the Illinois primary field, which included two Black women, she said: “Senate seats don’t come open for half a century sometimes.”
Polls in Illinois close at 7 p.m. Central on Tuesday.
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