Sheyann Webb-Christburg was 8 when she was part of the crowd of civil rights marchers attacked on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, months before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.
asserted
Johnson → attack → Act
On Tuesday night, she stood in Montgomery, Alabama, to celebrate a resounding political victory for Black voters and others who refused to accept the law’s recent diminishment by the U.S. Supreme Court and several state legislatures across the South.
asserted
who → stand → South
“I think a new movement has started,” she said after U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures won another term in Congress despite Alabama Republican lawmakers reshaping his district with the intent of making his reelection more difficult.
asserted
reelection → think → intent
Strong turnout among Black voters helped propel Figures, 41, over his Republican opponent in a new district that President Donald Trump won by double digits just two years ago.
asserted
Trump → propel → digits
It was among several victories for Black Democrats across the South — including the governor’s race in Georgia — along with near-misses in places like Florida where Republicans have been dominant.
asserted
Republicans → include → Florida
Party leaders and activists framed the results as a repudiation of Trump and of the Supreme Court’s decision this year that gutted the Voting Rights Act and allowed Republican-led states to redistrict in a way that weakened Black congressional representation.
asserted
that → frame → representation
The Republican president’s crackdown on diversity initiatives in his second term and his efforts to limit how the U.S. government tells the nation’s history on race and civil rights also motivated Black voters, said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter.
asserted
Brown → limit → Matter
“We can smell racism.
asserted
We → smell → racism
We can see it … we can feel it, and we know how to respond to it,” Brown said.
asserted
Brown → see → it
“Our survival has been based on our ability to resist it and respond and navigate around it.”
asserted
survival → base → it
Motivation among Black voters put GOP-leaning states in play
The surge helped Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms become the first Black woman in U.S. history elected as a governor.
asserted
Bottoms → put → governor
Black women also won races for Georgia attorney general, secretary of state, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, labor commissioner and school superintendent.
asserted
women → win → state
In North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a Black Democrat, won reelection in a district Republicans had redrawn to be favorable to the GOP.
asserted
Republicans → win → GOP
In Mississippi, where Black voters make up a larger share of the population than any other state, Scott Colom was locked in a razor-thin battle with Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a state that hasn’t sent a new Democratic senator to Washington since the era of Jim Crow segregation.
“Unlike all the people across the country that might be surprised, our campaign, our volunteers, the people of Mississippi are not surprised,” Colom said Wednesday.
uncertain
Colom → make → Mississippi
Polling and the results from Election Day showed an uptick in Black turnout and support compared with recent election cycles.
asserted
Polling → show → cycles
In Georgia, about 9 in 10 Black men voted for Bottoms, according to The AP Voter Poll.
uncertain
men → vote → Poll
By comparison, about three-quarters supported then-Vice President Kamala Harris in her 2024 presidential loss to Trump.
asserted
quarters → support → Trump
In Clayton County in metro Atlanta, where about two-thirds of the population is Black, Bottoms received almost 86,000 votes — about 13,600 more than Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is also Black, received in her 2022 race for governor.
asserted
who → receive → governor
The changes among Black men this year were big enough to shift Black voters overall.
asserted
changes → shift → voters
About 9 in 10 Black voters supported the Democratic candidate in their local U.S. House race this year, up from about 8 in 10 who supported Harris in 2024.
asserted
who → support → 2024
Black women’s support stayed steadier because they were one of the few groups that didn’t shift meaningfully toward Trump in 2024.
asserted
that → stay → 2024
Result should be a ‘wake-up call’ to Democratic leadership
After slavery was abolished, Black Americans entered Congress and other elective offices during Reconstruction, but disenfranchisement, violence and discriminatory laws helped severely erode that representation.
asserted
disenfranchisement → wake → representation
Now, more than 160 years since Reconstruction and 61 years since the Voting Rights Act, they are serving in more statewide positions in which diverse voting blocs are their constituents.
asserted
blocs → serve → which
This year, the Supreme Court’s weakening of the Voting Rights Act led Congressional Black Caucus leaders to warn they could lose up to 19 seats, roughly a third of their total roster.
uncertain
they → lead → roster
But with votes still being tallied, their potential losses nationally appeared well short of that.
asserted
losses → tally → that
Harris, the first Black woman to hold nationwide office, said the results should be “a huge wake-up call” for the Democratic Party.
asserted
results → hold → Party
“I’ve long believed that we have failed to put the resources into Southern states” because of a “misdirected perception of who the people in those states are and what they want,” Harris told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
asserted
Harris → believe → Wednesday
Abrams, who twice lost races for Georgia governor, said the results — the wins and the losses — validate what she’s argued for nearly two decades about investing in organizations in Southern and Sun Belt states.
asserted
she → lose → states
“You weren’t talking about massive margins,” she said of losses in Louisiana, Florida and Tennessee.
asserted
she → talk → Louisiana
“When we underinvest, especially states with significant populations of color, we throttle our own ability to expand the map.”
asserted
we → underinvest → map
Some Black candidates fell just short of pulling an upset
The celebrations didn’t extend everywhere.
asserted
celebrations → fall → upset
Tennessee Republicans split a congressional district representing Memphis, a majority Black city, into three.
asserted
Republicans → split → three
Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson ran for one of them and conceded in a close race that the AP has not called.
asserted
AP → run → that
“We knew from the beginning the race would be extremely close,” said Amber Sherman, lead Tennessee organizer for Black Voters Matter, which helped organize for Pearson’s campaign.
asserted
which → know → campaign
She said the higher voter turnout across the South in particular proved that Black voters believed the “redistricting was wrong, and it was racist.”
asserted
it → say → South
In Florida, Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon, a progressive who identifies as a democratic socialist, had been largely written off by national party leaders as a hopeless cause in a state where Republicans romped by nearly 20 percentage points four years ago.
asserted
Republicans → identify → points
Nixon lost by fewer than 3 percentage points.
asserted
Nixon → lose → points
In Louisiana, Trump-endorsed three-term congresswoman Julia Letlow barely eked out a victory in the U.S. Senate race against her Democratic opponent, Jamie Davis, a Black farmer who launched his campaign with virtually no statewide political profile.
asserted
who → endorse → profile
In a state that Trump carried by a 22 percentage point margin in 2024, Letlow won Tuesday by fewer than 2 percentage points.
asserted
Letlow → carry → points
Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Randal Gaines said he sought national party financing.
asserted
he → say → financing
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
