Black Candidates Aim Higher After Obama Win

Emboldened by President Obama’s win in November, black candidates around the country are taking their shots at the glass ceiling between themselves and top statewide office.

Already, six well-known black candidates are set to make runs at high-profile gubernatorial or Senate races. Several others are taking serious looks at Senate campaigns in top races.

Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) became the latest to take the plunge Friday, when he officially launched his campaign for governor.
Davis was one of Obama’s earliest supporters. He will attempt to build upon an election in which a black candidate carried the top-of-the-ticket race in 28 of 50 states.

“There’s no question that President Obama’s election has given people more of a sense that black candidates can run and be viable candidates,” Davis said. “Barack Obama shatters that psychological resistance.”

Davis and Senate candidate Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) are both giving up safe House seats and promising futures in that chamber in order to make difficult runs at top statewide offices. The only other black House member to do that in recent years was Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.), who lost his Senate bid in 2006.

Davis said he’s talked regularly to Ford and Meek about what they are undertaking.

All three come from majority-black House districts, but embody the kind of post-racial politics that Obama used to win in a majority-white state and country.

Meek emphasizes that he simply wants his campaign to be about who is the best for the job.

“It’s definitely not about making history, because Barack Obama has already done that in Florida by winning the state,” Meek said.

But while black candidates have steadily made their presence felt in the House and now in the highest office in the land, top statewide office remains elusive.

Since Reconstruction, there have only been two elected black governors and three elected black senators.
A pair of unelected top officeholders, New York Gov. David Paterson (D) and Illinois Sen. Roland Burris (D), will play key roles in attempting to add to that total in 2010.

According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, only nine black candidates were major-party nominees for Senate seats between 1982 and 2000, and the number is even smaller for governors — just six.
Those numbers have begun to tick up in recent years, but Obama’s Senate win in 2004 and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s (D) win in 2006 remain the only black victories for Senate or governor since 1992.

Patrick, Davis, Meek, Paterson and Burris will all play key roles in potentially changing that, but they won’t be the only ones.

Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams has already entered the GOP primary for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s (R) seat, which Hutchison might resign in order to run for governor in 2010.

And in Colorado, 31-year-old Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) two weeks ago and could soon enter the race to face appointed Sen. Michael Bennet (D).

Neither Republican, however, said Obama’s win had changed his perspective.

Williams noted that he has won three statewide elections and garnered 10 million votes.

“There’s no doubt that for some people, his having won this past November makes it easier for them to envision an African-American winning a statewide seat, but it didn’t play at all into my own calculation,” Williams said.

Frazier called Obama’s win “historic,” but said his decision is more about himself. He said he expects to decide about the race in the next few months.

“My interest in this Senate seat really had nothing to do with President Obama’s success,” Frazier said. “I’ve been convinced that the right person can win, regardless.”

Other potential candidates to keep an eye on include Missouri Rep. Lacy Clay (D), who has been looking at a run at that state’s open Senate seat, and Illinois Reps. Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson Jr., who are among those seen as possible primary opponents for Burris.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) drew some heat when it was reported that he lobbied against Davis and Jackson when they were under consideration for an appointment to the Senate, fearing they couldn’t win statewide.

That is becoming less of a concern with many black candidates breaking onto the statewide scene, including in many of the biggest races on the map.

David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center, said that is changing because of the broader appeal of Democrats like Obama, Davis and Meek.

“The candidates that we’re talking about are not candidates who are running as black-identified candidates,” Bositis said.

Still, all figure to have uphill battles — beginning, for many of them, with primaries.

Burris must overcome the taint associated with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), who appointed Burris after being arrested for allegedly trying to sell the seat and has since been removed from office by impeachment.

Meek already has the first of what should be many primary opponents in state Sen. Dan Gelber; Frazier is a seriously unknown quantity on the national scene; and Clay is contemplating taking on state Democratic Party royalty in Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.