’Not the boring old white guy again’: Black candidates see fundraising windfall - POLITICO

Across the Senate map, Black candidates posted blowout numbers in the most recent campaign reporting period.

All across the Senate map — but particularly in the South — Black candidates posted blowout performances in the most recent campaign fundraising period, leading to an unprecedented cash windfall that stands to reshape the Senate in 2022 and beyond.

While individual Black candidates have posted robust fundraising performances in the past, there may never have been a quarter where quite so many raised quite so much.

Glynda Carr, founder and CEO of Higher Heights, which supports Black female Democratic candidates, points to Demings and Beasley as “proof of concept.”.

But what hasn't been there before, is this sort of interest in funding African American candidates, and seeing where that goes,” said Kevin Harris, a Democratic strategist and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus.

After losing Senate bids in 2018 and 2020 in Mississippi, former Democratic lawmaker Mike Espy can attest to the difficulty Black candidates have encountered in the past.

“I always had to beat down so many doors and push that rock up the hill like Sisyphus,” Espy said, adding that if he had more financial resources, he might be currently serving in the Senate.

“We saw a lot of Black candidates do really well, during that time, with donations surging candidates like Charles Booker surging,” said Nabilah Islam, a strategist and former DNC fundraiser.

Booker, who boasts that 98 percent of his third quarter haul came from grassroots donors and featured 55,000 contributions, said his early fundraising strength allows him to solidify his status as a frontrunner in the Kentucky Democratic primary — an advantage he didn’t have in 2020, when the party coalesced early behind Amy McGrath.

Harrison’s fundraising prowess has made him a key resource for other Black Senate candidates, to whom he offers fundraising tips and staff suggestions

Harrison points out that until now, Black candidates were not the first choice of party leadership in competitive primaries

His own experience gave rise to a potent strategy: focusing on digital advertising and social media to circumvent the fundraising circles Black candidates were once excluded from

For all the progress suggested by recent fundraising results, there’s no guarantee that the midterm elections will sweep in a class of Black senators

In Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat race, where five candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination, the two Black candidates — Malcolm Kenyatta and Sharif Street — were vastly outraised

“We still have a huge challenge of under-representation right now...we have to have a single Black woman,” said Quentin James, founder and president of the Collective PAC, which supports progressive Black candidates running for office and has endorsed three non-incumbent Black Democratic Senate candidates

The Collective PAC and a handful of Black political operatives have been organizing and fundraising on behalf of Black candidates to prepare for this moment

In addition to helping train and staff campaigns, the organizations have been lobbying top donors on behalf of candidates, aiming to challenge the stereotype that Black politicians won't represent the interests of all of their constituents

And I think that's why a lot of Black candidates like Val Demings, Warnock, Herschel Walker even and Tim Scott are doing so well.”