Sometimes, the candidate that should have won, didn’t. That’s politics. It’s the very reality every candidate faces when they ask the first person to sign their petition to qualify to be on the ballot.
And this is something Elect Black Women PAC knows, too. When we endorse candidates, we know that sometimes a win might not be the election night outcome we had all worked so hard to deliver.
The Black women we endorse have a much steeper climb than even white women do in pursuit of an electoral victory. Fundraising is more challenging; the viability litmus test applied to Black women — voters and pundits asking: “is the district ready for a Black woman” or are “Black women too radical for the suburbs.”
This type of gatekeeping is toxic and pervasive.
“Women must become revolutionary. This cannot be evolution but revolution.” — Shirley Chisolm.
Elect Black Women PAC is here for the revolution.
In the winner take all political arena, we are here to win. We are here for the revolution. When we endorse a candidate, we cement a relationship. We seek out women who win or lose are committed to building lasting change through the networks and infrastructure we built ourselves. Because Black women are powerful.
Ruby Powell-Dennis, Founder and Executive Director of Elect Black Women PAC stated: “The opposition is riding a river of blood on our bodies.”
After all, we have a 4-week murder trial going on in Minneapolis to decide if former police officer Derek Chauvin is guilty of a murder the world watched him commit.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a voter suppression bill under a portrait of a slave plantation surrounded by all-white politicians as an elected Black woman, Rep. Park Cannon, was arrested for knocking on the door to gain entrance to the room.
America isn’t going to grant us access. It’s incumbent upon us to build it. Dismantling systemic racism and voter suppression doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen because of one person. The revolution comes as one Black woman links arms with another. We are powerful together. And Elect Black Women PAC knows that.
After an endorsed candidate wins on election day, we are there to support her and promote her re-election bid. If a candidate loses on election day, we are there to lift her up and empower her to run again, recruit and train more women, and be an ambassador in her community.
Black women are running and winning on election day. We are serving on school boards, city commissions, county commissions, statehouses, and Congress. And as of January 21, 2021, we serve as Vice President. This is our community and our country, too.
Politics is a winner takes all sport and Black women are here to take what’s rightfully ours.
Comments