When Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris to be his running mate, he started a new chapter in the history of Black women, women of South Asian descent, and all women in the United States. It’s therefore cruelly ironic that as we prepare to celebrate her inauguration as our nation’s 49th vice president, we may also lose the lone seat held by a Black woman in the United States Senate.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has the power to appoint Harris’ replacement to serve out the final two years of her term. Newsom has faced pressure from all sides as he contemplates Harris’ replacement. Top contenders reportedly include California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the congressman Ro Khanna, congresswomen Barbara Lee and Karen Bass, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and state Senator Holly Mitchell. In recent days attention has focused on Padilla, Bass, and Lee, each of whom would be a history-making selection.
While much of the media coverage and analysis has focused on pitting Blacks and Latinos against each other, the political dilemma Newsom faces also represents the structural, cultural, and political issues that create a lack of diversity throughout the ranks of the Democratic Party as men and women of color must compete for a small number of open seats and opportunities that become available to move up the ranks in elected leadership.
Of the 25 women serving in the U.S. Senate, only four are women of color, and Harris is the only Black woman. Harris is also only the second Black woman in the history of our country to be elected to the United States Senate. Her hard-fought victory came 24 years after Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois became the first Black woman elected to the Senate in 1992’s “Year of the Woman,” when a record four women were elected to the Senate, including Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who teamed up to become the first all-female Senate delegation.
The larger significance of this moment for Black women can’t be understated. A Black woman has broken through one of the highest glass ceilings for all women to become our nation’s first female vice president. Finally, we are moving from being recognized as the “backbone” and most loyal voters of the Democratic Party to being seen and widely praised for our leadership, strategic acumen and “Black Girl Magic” in the aftermath of a hard-fought election in which Black women played critical roles as activists, organizers, leaders, and voters—helping secure the White House for Biden and Harris. Black women again turned out in record numbers in the 2020 elections. In Georgia, leaders like Stacey Abrams from FairFight and LaTosha Brown from Black Voters Matter played key roles registering and turning out Black voters that helped turned Georgia blue.
It’s unconscionable that as Black women are helping to lead the runoff effort in Georgia to elect two men to the Senate and cinch Democrats control of the chamber, we could end up without a voice in that same body. Especially at a time when Congress is charged with tackling the COVID pandemic and systemic racism in our economic, health-care, education, criminal justice, and policing systems that disproportionately endanger Black lives.
This moment follows generations of Black women leaders who have been marginalized and ignored, neither being invited nor welcomed to key decision-making tables. Those were days when women learned to bring their own folding chairs and squeeze their way into spaces where decisions were being that directly impact our lives but without our voices being heard, as Shirley Chisholm and many of our foremothers taught us.
All of which adds to the pain being felt nationally by Black women in what feels like a glorious step forward and the potential for a huge simultaneous step backward. As leaders from 28 California civil rights organizations said recently in a letter to Newsom encouraging him to name either Bass or Lee, while one Black woman in the Senate isn’t enough, “zero is unacceptable.” It is ironic to think that we might literally have to give up our seat—not a folding chair but a beautiful leather-bound seat earned through hard work—at the table.
Both Bass and Lee are seasoned politicians with national profiles who previously served in the California legislature and have strong support inside California, the Democratic Party, and progressive circles. Rep. Bass, who is about to begin her sixth term in Congress, is also the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and was on the shortlist to be Joe Biden’s running mate.
Bass was the speaker of the California Assembly and is known in part for her work on improving the child welfare and foster care systems and her ability to work across the aisle. Lee is about to begin her 13th term representing Oakland and is a previous chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. When in the California assembly, she authored and passed the first California Violence Against Women Act. Lee also worked on Shirley Chisolm’s presidential campaign.
Both women have also been strong fighters for criminal justice, economic justice, and women’s reproductive freedom, and were unflinching in standing up to Donald Trump over the past four years.
Thus, thousands of women across the country have joined California’s Black women leaders and civil rights groups with open letters and petitions to Newsom and have launched grassroots social media efforts using the hashtags, #letskeeptheseat, #keeptheseat and #BlackWomenWontForget, calling on him to appoint either Bass or Lee to replace Harris.
Newsom alone has the power to ensure that there is at least one Black woman in the United States Senate in 2021. In a letter organized by #WinWithBlackWomen, which I’m part of, we put it this way: “By retaining the only seat held in the United States Senate by a Black woman, California has an opportunity to do more than just thank Black women.”
Karen Finney is a Democratic strategist who grew up in Berkeley, California, and graduated from University of California at Los Angeles.
