West News Wire: Hundreds of Black candidates are running in the November midterm elections in the United States, when Democrats are expected to lose control of Congress to Republicans.
According to The Hill, many of the candidates want to be the first Black elected official in their particular races.
“I’ve never seen a crop of more brilliant, hardworking, and viable Black candidates than I have seen in this election season,” said Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, political director of The Collective PAC, an organization dedicated to empowering Black people.
“I believe the trend really turned when George Floyd was assassinated,” Olasanoye continued. “A lot of Black people across the country have been seeking for somebody they can support, who they could get behind to run for office, and started looking in the mirror and seeing what President Obama always said, which is: We are the change we have been waiting for.”
He added that Black candidates “are running literally everywhere.”
The Collective PAC has endorsed some 200 of those candidates around the country.
Republicans are in the lead to control the US House of Representatives after this year’s midterm elections, with 230 seats projected for the GOP and 205 for Democrats, according to a new CBS News Battleground Tracker.
Republican victories in 230 districts would give GOP 12 seats more than the 218 required to control the House, the poll showed, according to The Hill.
And more Democrats reported being incited to vote by former President Donald Trump than by their own party leader.
Only 39 percent of Democrats say their midterm vote is “a lot” about President Joe Biden, compared to 62 percent of Republicans.
Other polls have also depicted a gloomy landscape for Democrats as they gear up for the 2022 midterm elections.
