The morning after Black voters propelled Democrats to two Senate runoff victories in Georgia, BlackPAC Executive Director Adrianne Shropshire was signing off on an invoice for polling on Black voters in the 2021 Virginia governor’s race — the organization’s next target.
After mobilizing Black voters in the 2020 cycle, particularly in rural areas, Black women organizers are on offense. They’re eyeing potential opportunities for more wins in upcoming local, state and federal campaigns where they can replicate their playbook: continuing to expand the party’s base and elect more Black women.
“Instead of saving democracy, we’re able to focus on activating democracy on behalf of Black women,” said Shropshire, who added that BlackPAC will be working in states including Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all of which have Senate races in 2022 that could determine the chamber’s balance of power.
“Democrats have the opportunity to expand on the Senate majority in 2022,” she said. “The only way that happens is to start building the infrastructure and re-engaging voters from this cycle. We cannot let another two years go by before we start talking to those folks again. … It is as important to course correcting this nation as 2020 was.”
Black women organizers were instrumental in registering and turning out Black voters, the backbone of the Democratic Party in 2020, helping to make Joe Biden the party’s nominee last spring and propelling him to victory in November amid a deadly pandemic and voter suppression efforts. In the final weeks of 2020, they focused their efforts again on Georgia, registering and turning out even more Black voters in the state than during the general election.
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