From Impossible to Inevitable
- A WEEKLY NOTE FROM LEAH DAUGHTRY -
Black
Lady
News
What matters this week.
For the women who move the world.
Issue No. 027
Friday, October 30, 2026
A NOTE FROM LEAH
Dolores Huerta died on Wednesday. She was 96.
She organized farmworkers when nobody thought they could be organized. She co-founded the union with Cesar Chavez, led the grape boycott that helped win California’s farm labor law, and gave the movement its cry: “Sí se puede.” Yes, we can. At 89, she was still getting arrested on picket lines. She never stopped believing that the people with the least power, organized, could move the people with the most.
That belief is on the ballot Tuesday.
This issue is about the women who believed it before us and the women who believe it now. Carol Moseley Braun walked into a Senate that had never seated a Black woman, and stood on the floor until it changed its vote. Glynda Carr has spent fifteen years building the bench, and in The Five she reads you the names: women running for the Senate, for governor, for Congress, for offices in states that have never elected one of us. And Melanie Campbell, the coalition builder, has 40 groups led by Black women on the road in nine states, knocking doors all the way to Election Day. And in Detroit and Flint and Philadelphia, federal monitors will be watching the polls. Know your rights, and go anyway.
If you haven’t voted, make your plan today. If you have, find three sisters who haven’t.
Sí se puede.
THE HEADLINE
It’s Not Just Names on the Ballot
The early vote is breaking records. Here’s what it’s deciding.
The lines have been long for weeks. The University of Florida Election Lab counts more than 43 million ballots already cast, well ahead of the 2022 pace. By Thursday, Georgians had already cast more in-person early votes than in any midterm before, and Friday was still to come. South Carolina passed its record days ago. Virginia has already topped its entire 2022 early vote. North Carolina is running more than a third ahead.
And we’re in those lines. Black voters have cast 32.4% of Georgia’s early ballots, according to the Georgia Votes tracker. In North Carolina, Black voters make up roughly a fifth of the rolls and an even bigger slice of the early vote, close to 22%, by ABC11’s count of state data.
Glynda Carr’s Five tells you who is running. Here is what else is on the ballot.
Your body. Virginia voters will decide whether to write reproductive freedom into the state constitution. In Missouri, Amendment 3 would repeal the abortion-rights amendment voters passed just two years ago.
Your vote itself. North Carolina’s voter ID amendment would put a photo ID requirement in the constitution, mail ballots included. Ohio, Nevada, and Arizona have their own ID or citizenship measures. Virginia goes the other way: one amendment would restore voting rights automatically to people when they finish a prison sentence.
Your map. In April, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted the Voting Rights Act’s protection against diluting Black votes. Louisiana has already erased a majority-Black district. Tennessee split majority-Black Memphis three ways. On Tuesday, 88 of the country’s 99 legislative chambers and 36 governorships are on the ballot, and the people who win them will draw the next lines with fewer rules to stop them.
Your health care and your paycheck. On Jan. 1, Medicaid’s new work requirements kick in for many adults: 80 hours a month of work or a qualifying activity, or lose coverage. Medicaid covers a third of Black Americans under 65 and paid for 40% of all births in this country in 2024. Black women’s unemployment hit 6.8% in September, more than double the rate for white women. Whoever controls Congress in January decides whether any of that changes.
Black women already told us what they want. In this summer’s Power of the Sister Vote poll, the top priority was protecting the safety net, with bringing down prices right behind it. They’re on the ballot, by name and by number.
So read the whole ballot, not just the top of it. Bring your ID if your state asks for it. If you’re in Georgia, Friday is the last day of early voting. Everyone else, make your plan for Tuesday, and bring somebody with you.
University of Florida Election Lab; Georgia Secretary of State; Georgia Votes; South Carolina Election Commission; Virginia Public Access Project; North Carolina State Board of Elections; Ballotpedia; Associated Press; Congressional Research Service; KFF; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
THE PROFILE
Melanie L. Campbell
The coalition builder.
Photo courtesy of NCBCP
In 1995, Melanie Campbell took a job at the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. She figured she’d stay about 18 months. Thirty-one years later, she’s still there, and the coalition has become one of the engines of the Black vote.
She grew up in Mims, Florida, the baby of six. Both parents were teachers, and both were NAACP people. After Clark Atlanta University, she ran youth services for Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. She took over the coalition as executive director in 2000, and has run it as president and CEO since 2011. Along the way she built Black Youth Vote, the Black Women’s Roundtable, and the Unity Campaign. And she pulled together the Unity coalitions that turned out voters and counted Black people in the census.
That’s her gift. Where other people see a field of separate organizations, Melanie sees one team, and she gets them moving on the same plan. Call her the coalition builder.
As National Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable, she also listens. Its Power of the Sister Vote poll, now in its tenth year, asks Black women what they want rather than guessing. This summer’s edition, with The Root, found nearly 7 in 10 planned to definitely vote, and 70% believed their vote could create change, up 20 points.
This fall the work got harder. “In my more than 30 years of organizing, it has never been this bad to raise money to support Black causes of any kind,” she told the Associated Press in September. She went anyway. On Oct. 13, Georgia’s first day of early voting, she launched the Unity ’26 Power of the Sister Vote tour in Atlanta: 40 groups led by Black women, nine states, all the way to Election Day.
“This is more than a tour,” she said. “It’s a united movement.”
Tuesday, we will see the coalition’s work in action.
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; The Washington Post; Word In Black; The Root; Associated Press; Tennessee Tribune
THE FIVE
Curated by Glynda C. Carr, President and CEO, Higher Heights for America
Four days out, Glynda Carr reads the ballot the way Higher Heights has for fifteen years: name by name.
Black Women Are on the Ballot. History Is on the Line.
Five things to watch as Black women seek to make history in Election 2026.
Photo courtesy of Glynda C. Carr
01 The Senate Could Be on the Brink of a Black Women’s Breakthrough.
For the first time in American history, more than two Black women could serve in the U.S. Senate simultaneously. Senators Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware made history together in 2025. Now, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, Florida State Representative Angie Nixon, N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas in Oklahoma, and Marquita Bradshaw in Tennessee are among the Black women seeking Senate seats in 2026. Stratton’s candidacy offers a particularly promising path to this historic milestone, while Nixon has garnered national attention and growing momentum. Only five Black women have ever served in the U.S. Senate. These candidacies represent an opportunity to expand Black women’s representation in one of the nation’s most powerful institutions. (CAWP; Higher Heights)
02 Georgia Is Testing What Black Women’s Statewide Power Can Look Like.
In the nearly 250-year history of this country, America has never elected a Black woman governor. That could change in Georgia, where former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is competing in a race rated a toss-up. But Georgia’s story is even bigger. Black women represent eight of the state’s ten Democratic nominees for statewide executive office, including candidates seeking to oversee elections, enforce laws, and shape public policy. Georgia is showing us what happens when Black women compete for power at every level, not simply for a seat at the table. (CAWP; Higher Heights)
03 A New Generation of Black Women Is Coming for Congress.
Keep your eyes on Jasmine Clark in Georgia, Melat Kiros in Colorado, and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York. All three are under 45 and favored to win their congressional races. At just 29, Kiros could become one of the youngest women ever elected to Congress and the first Black woman to represent Colorado in Washington. Chevalier could become only the second Afro-Latina elected to Congress. These women represent a new generation of political leadership, bringing different experiences, expertise, and perspectives to the halls of power. (CAWP; Higher Heights)
04 Black Women Are Running to Lead in Places Where We’ve Never Held Power.
The historic possibilities extend far beyond Washington. In New York, Adrienne Adams could become the state’s first Black woman lieutenant governor. Nevada could elect its first Black woman to statewide executive office with Tya Mathis-Coleman. Alabama, South Carolina, Maryland, and Ohio also have Black women nominees positioned to break important barriers. These offices matter. They influence elections, education, public resources, and the decisions that shape our everyday lives. Representation is not just about making history. It’s about having a voice where decisions are made. (CAWP; Higher Heights)
05 Black Women Are Bringing Brainpower to the Ballot.
Black women on the ballot are bringing serious academic credentials to public leadership. Jasmine Clark, running for Congress in Georgia, holds a Ph.D. in microbiology; Penny Brown Reynolds, running for Georgia secretary of state, holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice; and Tya Mathis-Coleman, running for Nevada treasurer, holds a doctorate in public policy. Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York, Melat Kiros in Colorado, and Janelle Sarauw, running for Delegate to Congress from the U.S. Virgin Islands, are also pursuing doctorates. Their candidacies remind us that Black women are entering public life with deep expertise, professional experience, and fresh perspectives on how government should work. (CAWP; Higher Heights)
THE LEGENDS
Carol Moseley Braun
Born 1947. U.S. senator from Illinois, 1993-1999.
In 1992, Carol Moseley Braun ran for the U.S. Senate against her own party’s incumbent. Alan Dixon, a two-term Democrat, had voted to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. She beat him in the primary, then won in November with 53% of the vote. In the Year of the Woman, she became the first Black woman ever elected to the Senate.
She came up through Chicago. As a teenager she marched with Dr. King for open housing. She earned her law degree at the University of Chicago, worked as an assistant U.S. attorney, and spent a decade in the Illinois House, rising to assistant majority leader. Then Cook County Recorder of Deeds, where no African American had held county executive office before her.
In the Senate she was the first Black Democrat ever to serve, and for her entire term the only Black senator. In July 1993, Sen. Jesse Helms tried to have the federal government re-up its special protection for the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s emblem, a design built around the Confederate flag. Her motion to kill it failed, 48 to 52. So she took the floor. “Symbols are important,” she said. “They speak volumes.” She told her colleagues the vote was about race, and said she would stand there “until this room freezes over.” The Senate voted again. This time it killed the amendment, 75 to 25.
She lost her seat in 1998. She went on to serve as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, ran for president in 2004, the second Black woman to seek the Democratic nomination after Shirley Chisholm, and published her memoir, Trailblazer, last year. She is 79.
For three decades after she won, the Senate never seated more than one Black woman at a time. Today there are two. Tuesday, voters could send two more: Juliana Stratton in Illinois and Angie Nixon in Florida. She turned the Senate with one voice. Four days out, use yours.
U.S. House History, Art & Archives; U.S. Senate Historical Office; Congressional Record; Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State
Photos courtesy of Wikipedia (early) and Soapbox, Inc. (later).
THE WIN
Bethune-Cookman’s Nursing Moment
The school Mary McLeod Bethune built just made federal history of its own.
Bethune-Cookman University has landed nearly $5.2 million in federal nursing grants, the first funding it has ever received from the Health Resources and Services Administration.
The money comes in two awards. The first, $2.2 million for the Wildcat Nursing Student Success Project, follows a student from her high school years to the day she pins on her nursing degree. The second, nearly $3 million for Project RISE-RN, is for people already working in health care who want more training and a bigger role. Florida chipped in $250,000 of its own, so teenagers can start their nursing coursework while still in high school.
“Our students are the future of nursing,” said Dr. Beverly Bonaparte, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. President Albert D. Mosley called the awards “an important investment in our students and the future of healthcare across the region.”
In 1904, Mary McLeod Bethune opened a school for Black girls in Daytona, Florida. More than a century later, that school is training the nurses who will care for our communities. That’s a win.
Bethune-Cookman University via Daytona Times; Black Enterprise
THE WATCH
Next Thursday, a hearing without her. On Nov. 5, the committee President Trump built to try to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook is set to meet behind closed doors. She won’t be in the room. Her lawyers told the White House she’ll be in Europe for monetary policy meetings and can’t appear until after the Fed’s Dec. 8-9 meeting, and they called the three-member panel “demonstrably biased.” Kevin Hassett, the White House economic adviser who sits on that panel, has publicly argued Trump is justified in removing her. As we go to press, the White House hasn’t said whether it will wait. Meanwhile, she’s doing the job: on Wednesday, she was one of two dissents when the Fed held rates steady. The Supreme Court has already ruled she keeps her seat while her case goes on. Watch whether the White House moves the date, or tries to move ahead without her.
AP; SCOTUSblog; Fox Business
The watchers are going everywhere. Last week, the Justice Department told Michigan it was sending election monitors to seven cities, including Detroit and Flint. Now it says monitors will be in all 50 states on Tuesday, about 1,000 of them. That’s more than double the 388 it sent for the 2022 midterms, according to a department official. Philadelphia and three other Pennsylvania counties are on the list. The rest of the list stays secret until Election Day, and nothing a monitor wears will mark them as Justice Department. The department calls this routine. “Our monitors only observe and take notes,” its letter to Pennsylvania says. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel calls them a standard part of elections. Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold, set limits on where they could go in Adams County, near Denver. The department refused them, so its monitors will stay outside the county’s voter centers. So know the rules before you go. Under the law, monitors have no business speaking to voters, handling ballots or equipment, or getting in the way of how your precinct runs. If anyone tries, tell a poll worker, and call the Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE.
Louisiana Illuminator; PBS NewsHour; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Deadline Detroit; Colorado Politics
Your ZIP code could be making you sick. That’s the argument of a new NAACP analysis, “Asthma: Every Breath We Take,” released last week. Built with the drugmaker Sanofi on a wellness survey of nearly 23,000 people and laid over federal air-quality data, it finds that adults in ZIP codes where residents reported air problems have asthma at a rate of 12.4%, against an average of 10.1%. The map’s hot spots will look familiar: Houston’s east and south sides, the neighborhoods south and west of downtown Atlanta, Charlotte’s Historic West End and Historic North End, West Philadelphia, the Bronx, and wide stretches of Detroit. Federal numbers tell the same story. Black adults die of asthma at twice the national rate, and Black children at nearly four and a half times, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. “Asthma is often treated as an individual medical condition,” said Dr. Chris Pernell, director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity, “but the data tells a much bigger story.” It’s a story about air and housing, the things a family can’t fix with an inhaler. Look up your own ZIP code on the NAACP’s map, then watch which of these cities do something about it.
NAACP; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health
And the National Guard? Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, citing unnamed military sources, reported this week that National Guard units in all 50 states are being mobilized for Tuesday, with cyber defense as the main job, plus watching over drop boxes and voting sites. The Pentagon hasn’t confirmed it, and no other outlet has yet. Here is what is confirmed. In Washington state, after suspicious white powder turned up in mail to state and congressional offices, Gov. Bob Ferguson offered county election offices Guard members to watch their drop boxes. Several took him up on it. The Guard members there carry no weapons, wear no uniforms, and only watch. In D.C., where the Guard answers to the president, residents complained after Guard members were seen beside a ballot drop box in Foggy Bottom. The city’s elections board pushed back, and the task force answered that its members are “directed not to monitor or secure polling locations.” In August, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told Sen. Elissa Slotkin the military had “no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places.” Read that sentence closely. It covers federal troops. It says nothing about Guard units under a governor’s command. Federal law bars armed federal forces at the polls. If you see uniforms where you vote, you still have every right to cast your ballot. Vote, and report it to 866-OUR-VOTE.
Ken Klippenstein; FOX 13 Seattle; The Washington Sun; Associated Press
ONE THING TO READ
The Black Women Holding Each Other Up on the Path to the Senate
Errin Haines, The 19th
Read this one last, because it’s the human side of everything above. Errin Haines sat with Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester, the first two Black women ever to serve in the Senate at the same time, and with Angie Nixon, who wants to join them. They lean on each other. “Nobody knows better than us the struggle that it takes to get to the Senate,” Alsobrooks says. Blunt Rochester’s version: “We can have the meeting before the meeting!” And Nixon, on what they gave her: “They spoke life into me.” About 2,000 people have served in the U.S. Senate. Five have been Black women. Tuesday could change the math.
Stay rooted.
- LD
Black Lady News is a weekly curation by Leah Daughtry.
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