Senator-Elects Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware Make History

By Fern Gillespie
Against the backdrop of the 2024 presidential election night, for the first time in American history, two Black women simultaneously won U.S. Senate seats. Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks, 53, and Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester, 62, will be sworn into office next year.

Throughout its history, only 60 women have served in the U.S. Senate. Only three Black women have been U.S. Senators – 1992, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Illinois; Vice President Kamala Harris in 2016 and Sen. Laphonza Butler, California, who was temporarily appointed to finish out the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term in 2023. Currently, 25 women are serving in the U.S. Senate.

Celeste Morris, co-founder of Higher Heights, had met both women while campaigning for Kamala Harris and other Black women candidates. “Our struggle involves many fights. No one wins them all. Kamala was a major deeply felt loss at the top of the ticket,” Morris told Our Time Press. “Down ballot we were winners. We made history by electing two highly qualified Black women to the US Senate.”

These Democrat women, Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks, have been political “firsts” in their careers. Since 2017, Rep. Blunt Rochester has served as Delaware’s first woman and first African American to be elected to Congress. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a master’s degree in urban affairs and public policy from the University of Delaware. Lifelong Maryland resident, Alsobrooks, made history as the youngest and first woman to be elected Prince George’s County State’s Attorney.

She holds a bachelor’s from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.
“While it sometimes might feel as though our country is falling back, victories like those in Delaware and Maryland are necessary to remind us that we’re still moving forward,” Brooklyn’s Congresswoman Yvette Clarke told Our Time Press.” Yesterday, I saw a photo of our two Senators-elect standing side-by-side – together, they represent half of all Black women ever elected to the United States Senate. We must not lose sight of the historical weight of that achievement.”

For the first time, New Jersey is sending two Black women to Congress. Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who was elected in 2015, and Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, former president of the Newark City Council who just won the seat of late Congressman Donald Payne, Jr.

Congresswoman Coleman is known as a forceful advocate for underserved communities. She had dealt with the previous Trump administration and is preparing for 2025. “Defending our most vulnerable residents from attacks by MAGA politicians will be of utmost importance,” she told Our Time Press. “We won’t let their racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia go unchallenged. We must simultaneously defend the progress we’ve made on environmental protection and strengthened labor enforcement. Workers will be under attack in the coming administration and it’ll be up to Democrats in Congress to stand up and fight back.”

Since 2007, Congresswoman Clarke has served in Congress. She points out that Democrats will be governing “from a difficult position” in the 119th Congress. “From the initial actions of this upcoming administration, I expect the norms that defined our nation since its founding will be degraded to dangerous levels – just as they were in Mr. Trump’s first term. And I expect the vices and callousness that permeated his first administration will persist into the second,” she said. “That is why we must use every legislative and communicative tool at our disposal to protect the most vulnerable and overlooked Americans among us, because it’s clear to all of us paying attention that a second Trump Administration will pursue any avenue to bring them further hardships and struggles.”

All the Black women members of the House of Representatives were re-elected. “They will be there fighting for us,” said Morris. “As Black women we must be proud and stay energized by our victories. Keep our heads up and keep our eyes on the prize of freedom and democracy.