Black Turnout Helps Democrats Defy Redistricting, Drives Historic Southern Victories/ NEWSLOOKS/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Strong Black voter participation helped Democrats win historic victories and defend congressional seats targeted by Republican redistricting. Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history, while Alabama Rep. Shomari Figures overcame a substantially redrawn district. Narrow Democratic losses elsewhere prompted calls for greater national investment in Southern campaigns.
Quick Look
- Historic Georgia victory: Keisha Lance Bottoms became the nation’s first Black woman elected governor.
- Alabama breakthrough: Shomari Figures won reelection despite district changes designed to favor Republicans.
- North Carolina hold: Black Democratic Rep. Don Davis retained a Republican-targeted seat.
- Stronger Democratic support: About 9 in 10 Black voters backed Democratic House candidates.
- Black men’s shift: Roughly 9 in 10 supported Bottoms in Georgia, compared with three-quarters who backed Kamala Harris in 2024.
- Close Southern contests: Democrats narrowly lost Senate races in Florida and Louisiana, while Mississippi remained unsettled.
- Investment debate: Harris and Stacey Abrams urged Democrats to devote more resources to Southern states.
- Representation concerns: Potential Congressional Black Caucus losses appeared smaller than initially feared, with counting continuing.
Deep Look
Black Voters Help Democrats Overcome Republican Advantages
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Strong participation among Black voters helped power Democratic victories across the South, delivering historic gains and protecting congressional seats that Republicans had redrawn to make harder to defend.
For Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who was 8 when she joined civil rights marchers attacked on Bloody Sunday in Selma, the results carried particular significance.
“I think a new movement has started,” she said after Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures won another term representing Alabama.
Figures, 41, prevailed in a district whose new boundaries included territory President Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024.
Party leaders and voting rights advocates described the results as a response to Republican redistricting following the Supreme Court’s weakening of the Voting Rights Act.
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said Trump’s actions against diversity initiatives and efforts to restrict how the federal government presents racial and civil rights history also motivated voters.
“We can smell racism. We can see it … we can feel it, and we know how to respond to it,” Brown said. “Our survival has been based on our ability to resist it and respond and navigate around it.”
Georgia Delivers Historic Victories
Black voter support helped Keisha Lance Bottoms become the first Black woman elected governor in American history.
Black women also won Georgia elections for attorney general, secretary of state, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, labor commissioner and school superintendent.
The AP Voter Poll found that about 9 in 10 Black men supported Bottoms. Roughly three-quarters had backed then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
In Clayton County, a metro Atlanta county where approximately two-thirds of residents are Black, Bottoms received almost 86,000 votes. That was about 13,600 more than Stacey Abrams received during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign.
Nationally, about 9 in 10 Black voters supported Democratic House candidates, compared with approximately 8 in 10 who backed Harris in 2024.
The change was especially pronounced among Black men. Black women’s support remained steadier, having shown little movement toward Trump in the previous presidential election.
Redistricting Fails to Defeat Some Targeted Democrats
In North Carolina, Democratic Rep. Don Davis won reelection in a district Republicans had redrawn to improve their chances.
Figures faced a similar challenge in Alabama, where lawmakers reduced the Black voting-age population in his district from 48% to 40%.
Rather than centering his campaign on the map changes, Figures emphasized economic pressures and dissatisfaction with Trump.
“People are just tired, man. They’re tired of the lack of decency. They’re tired of the lack of integrity. They’re tired of the lack of honesty,” he said.
Heavy turnout in predominantly Black Montgomery helped carry him to victory. Lines at some polling places stretched for blocks during much of Election Day.
Before the election, Congressional Black Caucus leaders warned that the Supreme Court decision could contribute to losses of up to 19 seats — roughly one-third of the caucus.
With counting still underway, potential losses appeared substantially smaller.
Mississippi Contest Remains Close
In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colomb remained locked in a razor-thin Senate contest with Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The state has the country’s largest Black population share and has not elected a new Democratic senator since the Jim Crow era.
“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.
The unresolved contest added to evidence that Democrats could compete in Southern states long viewed as difficult territory.
Harris and Abrams Call for Greater Southern Investment
Harris said the results should serve as “a huge wake-up call” for Democratic leaders.
“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,” she told The Associated Press.
Abrams said both victories and narrow defeats reinforced her longstanding argument for sustained investment in organizing across Southern and Sun Belt states.
“You weren’t talking about massive margins,” she said of Democratic losses in Louisiana, Florida and Tennessee.
“When we underinvest, especially states with significant populations of color, we throttle our own ability to expand the map.”
Narrow Losses Temper Celebrations
Not every closely contested race ended in a Democratic victory.
In Tennessee, Republican lawmakers divided a congressional district representing majority-Black Memphis into three districts.
Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson conceded a close contest in one of them, although the AP had not called the race.
“We knew from the beginning the race would be extremely close,” said Amber Sherman, lead Tennessee organizer for Black Voters Matter, which supported organizing for Pearson.
Sherman said stronger Southern turnout demonstrated that Black voters believed the “redistricting was wrong, and it was racist.”
In Florida, Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon lost by fewer than 3 percentage points. Nixon, a progressive who identifies as a democratic socialist, had received little confidence from national party leaders in a state where Republicans won major races by nearly 20 points four years earlier.
Louisiana Result Intensifies Funding Debate
Republican Rep. Julia Letlow narrowly won Louisiana’s Senate race against Democrat Jamie Davisa Black farmer who began campaigning with little statewide recognition.
Letlow’s margin was fewer than 2 percentage points in a state Trump carried by 22 points in 2024.
Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Randal Gaines said he had sought national financial support.
Davis raised more than $4 million from individual donors, but his campaign said it received no funding from the Democratic National Committee or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
“We were within striking range of victory, and additional funding would have guaranteed it,” Gaines said.
That claim reflected his assessment of the race; the outcome of a better-funded campaign cannot be established.
Bottoms Connects Historic Milestone With Governing for Everyone
Bottoms emphasized economic concerns and assistance for voters across demographic groups during her statewide campaign.
She also acknowledged the historical weight of her election, recalling family roots on an antebellum plantation in Crawfordville — the Georgia town associated with the Confederacy’s vice president.
“Tonight should remind us all that no matter what community we come from, Georgia is not defined by one moment in time or by one person,” Bottoms said.
“It’s been defined by all of us, and I will be a governor for everyone in this state.”
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