Stacey Abrams and Wes Moore seek to make history and seize the moment
Can one or both join Wilder and Patrick as elected state leaders?
There have been only four African American governors in U.S. history. Two were unelected, H.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana and David Paterson of New York. Two were elected, Douglas Wilder of Virginia and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. Beyond the latter two, Black candidates have found it extremely difficult to catapult themselves into the state's top job.
While there have been strides in Congressional races and elections for offices such as lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, attaining the position of chief executive continues to elude Black candidates. Moreover, while there are four African American aspirants who have made it to the general election in this cycle, only two can be seen as viable at this point, Stacy Abrams in Georgia and Wes Moore in Maryland.
In Alabama, educator and political novice, Jacqueline Flowers bested sitting Alabama State Senator, Milika Sanders-Fortin in a closely contested race. Ms. Flowers will now take on Governor Kay Ivey, who won her nine-way primary race with 54.8 percent of the vote. Not only does the incumbent enjoy a significant fundraising advantage, state-wide name recognition, and, the fact that 54 percent of registered voters identify as Republican or lean Republican compared to 34 percent of those who consider themselves as Democrats or lean Democratic. To further emphasize the uphill climb for Flowers is the 620,000 Republicans who voted in their primary, while just 59,000 Democrats participated in theirs.
In Arkansas, the general election will pit former Trump press secretary, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders against Democrat Chris Jones. Most of us know Huckabee-Sander's story in that she is the daughter of two-time Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee, who also made runs for the White House in 2008 and 2016. Given her connections in the state, love her or hate her, she would be a tough out for any candidate. This is unfortunate for Jones in that he's a uniquely credentialed African American candidate with degrees from Morehouse and M.I.T. in Physics and Math, and Nuclear Engineering, and Urban Planning, respectively.
Given that Trump won Arkansas with just over 64 percent of the vote, Jones’ path to victory is wrought with obstacles. It also has to be frustrating that Huckabee Sanders finally agreed to a debate, but that faceoff won't occur until Oct. 21st, just 18 days before the election. Even then, she’ll share the stage not only with Jones but also Libertarian candidate Ricky Herrington. Complicating matters further for Jones is that after the $100 million debacle, which was Jaime Harrison, attracting outside money for another red state longshot will be difficult.
Which gets us to Stacy Abrams and Wes Moore. Abrams, who ran unopposed in the Democratic Primary is getting a chance to avenge her loss to Kemp four years ago. While a lot of the landscape remains the same, there will be some factors that could play to Kemp's advantage. Since he was elected, Kemp and his GOP cohorts have done everything they can to make voting more difficult, by passing an expansive law that targeted mail-in ballots, drop boxes, and the infamous ban on giving food and water to voters standing in line. These efforts and others were strategically designed to suppress voting in communities of color.
Supporters of these sweeping election changes argue that voter participation actually increased during the primaries. However, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, "While overÂall turnout did increase, so too did the White-Black turnout gap. This year, White turnout was 6 percentÂage points higher than Black turnout, far higher than in any primary in recent years." In other words, the legislation is having its purposive effects with remarkable and premeditated adeptness.
Equally as effective has been Kemp's recent immoderate use of federal funds as largess in his re-election bid. Last week he sent $1 billion of COVID Relief Funds that he was loath to use for their envisioned purposes, to some of the state's poorest communities. That was his fourth handout in less than a week using a variety of federal funds, including American Rescue Plan dollars, which he criticized the Biden Administration for initiating and implementing. For her part, Abrams has rightly labeled his transformative humanitarianism as an election-year stunt and questioned the scarcity of his concern for the poor and disadvantaged during his previous three years as governor.
In Moore's case, it is widely anticipated that he will be the first African American to finally receive the keys to the Governor's mansion in Annapolis. The previous two Democratic Standard bearers in 2014 and 2018, Rep. Anthony Brown and former NAACP Executive Director Ben Jealous had hoped to be the first Black candidate to be elected governor. However, both were defeated by moderate Republican Larry Hogan, Jr. Brown's loss was by three points and Jealous' by 10 in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one.
Part of Brown's problem was he had served as the number two ranking official in the state for eight years under Governor Martin O'Malley. While there were a number of accomplishments in the first six years of O'Malley's tenure, numerous hikes in taxes, fees, and tolls, in addition to baggage from his time as Mayor of Baltimore began to catch up with him, particularly with regard to policing. Unfortunately, Brown was tainted by it all, leaving him with insufficient time to distance himself and create his own narrative in time.
But unlike Brown and Jealous, Wes Moore finds himself in a more favorable position having won a primary that boasted a field of impressive candidates that included former Democratic Committee Chair and Secretary of Labor in the Obama Administration, Tom Perez and current Comptroller, Peter Franchot who is completing his fourth term. Democrats are coalescing behind Moore as the fall election approaches in which he will face State Rep. Dan Cox, a Trump-endorsed election denier who attended the January 6th Capitol Insurrection. Cox defeated Larry Hogan's hand-picked candidate, former state secretary of commerce, Kelly Shultz in an upset that surprised most observers.
Given the difficulties that African American candidates have encountered in their quest for statewide elective offices, Abrams and Moore, along with senate candidates Rep. Val Demings (FL) and Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes (WI) could be the candidates who alter that narrative in the midterms. The opportunity for Black candidates to achieve unparalleled and historical successes is within grasp. However, a lot has to go right and given the barriers put in place by GOP governors, there is still a lot of work to do. And as we all know, making history has never been easy.