No Black person has ever been elected governor of Georgia or Florida. No Black candidate has ever been elected to the U.S. Senate by Mississippi voters. Any of the three could change that when polls close tonight.
The three races are not the same kind of bet, and Black voters have different reasons to care about each.
Georgia: a first for Black women everywhere
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic former mayor of Atlanta, would be Georgia’s first Black governor and the first Black woman elected governor in any state. She would also be the first Democrat to win the office since 1998. Her opponent, Republican Rick Jackson, is a billionaire who has said he will spend whatever it takes, and the race has been one of the most expensive ad wars in the state’s history. Georgia polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Florida: a first, and a fight over who it is for
Byron Donalds, a Republican congressman endorsed by Donald Trump, would be Florida’s first Black governor. His Democratic opponent is David Jolly, a former Republican congressman. A Black first is still a first, and it belongs in the record. But the paper’s judgment is that the measure of an officeholder is what he does with the office, and Donalds’ program on school privatization is the opposite of what public schools serving Black children in Florida need. Republicans nominated three Black candidates for governor this year, in Florida, Michigan and Minnesota. Representation and policy are not the same thing, and Black voters are entitled to weigh both.
Mississippi: the seat Black voters have been shut out of since Reconstruction
Scott Colom, a Democratic district attorney, is challenging Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Mississippi’s only Black senators, Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, were chosen by the legislature during Reconstruction, before senators were elected directly. Colom would be the first Black person Mississippi voters have ever sent to the Senate. The state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, and it voted for Trump by about 20 points in 2024, so a win would be a large upset. Kamala Harris and Barack Obama have both campaigned for Colom. Mississippi is more than a third Black, and organizers there say turnout will be driven by anger over attacks on voting rights.
Do not expect a quick answer. Counts in close races can run late, and the Associated Press and election officials, not campaigns or this paper, decide when a race is over. We will report what they report.
Black voters built the margins in all three states long before any of these candidates asked for them. Tonight we find out whether the offices finally answer to them.
Have your say