U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester often holds a large scarf imprinted with a highly symbolic and historic document as she campaigns to become the fourth Black woman ever to serve in the U.S. Senate.
A Reconstruction-era voting oath signed by her great-great-great grandfather, a formerly enslaved man, is etched on the scarf’s threads.
She had the scarf during her swearing-in when she made history in 2017 as the first Black person and first woman elected as Delaware’s sole representative to the U.S. House.
And years later, she had it as she prayed in the House balcony in one of the most memorable images to emerge from the deadly Jan. 6 riots on the U.S. Capitol.
“With the House under siege, I prayed for love over hate and hope over fear,” she said in a campaign video describing that day.
Delaware is holding its primary on Tuesday. Blunt Rochester, who is running unopposed, will face Republican challenger Eric Hansen, a former Walmart business leader, in the November general election. The two are vying for the seat vacated by retiring Sen. Tom Carper, who represented the state for just over two decades.
Carper endorsed Blunt Rochester, his former intern-turned-veteran lawmaker, as his successor. And in the Democratic leaning state of Delaware, several factors favor her win in November.
Blunt Rochester has emerged in a campaign cycle and on a ticket punctuated by historic firsts, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and Asian woman to receive a major party’s nomination. The candidacies of women like Harris and Blunt Rochester are the culmination of a long struggle by Black women to build political power within the Democratic Party.
The weight of history is not lost on Blunt Rochester. She is the daughter of Ted Blunt, a long-serving member of the Wilmington, Delaware, City Council.
In a campaign video, “Bright Hope,” announcing her candidacy, sepia-toned photos from her childhood and aged wooden pews frame the lawmaker as she drew parallels between the resilience she learned as a child and the fortitude and hope she has for the future of Delaware.
It was a message she echoed when she took the stage during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
“Bright Hope was the name of the church my grandmother attended for 70 years. It’s not just a name. It’s how I approach my life. It’s how I’ll lead as senator,” she told a gathering of thousands. “It’s how Kamala sees the future of America.”
With a war chest of roughly $7.8 million and a four-term congressional record, Blunt Rochester is considered a strong contender in the contest Hansen. His campaign coffers are roughly $1 million.
For his part, Hansen is positioning himself as a contrast to Blunt Rochester. He touts himself as a political outsider and says that will help him connect better with the people in Delaware.
“I’m not a career politician,” Hansen wrote on X on Tuesday. “I actually want to bring people together with real, common-sense solutions.”
Black women have historically helped form the grassroots backbone of the Democratic Party. So it’s no coincidence that Delaware, a small, Democratic-leaning state, produced perhaps the most likely prospect for a Black woman to be elected to the Senate this cycle.
Some 55% of adults in the state lean Democratic, according to the Pew Research Center. Both chambers of the Delaware state legislature are dominated by Democrats.
“We suspect that Black women are motivated by nonpartisan factors, including their commitment to democratic principles, measured by their higher levels of civic duty,” academic researchers Christine Slaughter, Chaya Crowder, and Christina Greer wrote in Black Women: Keepers of Democracy, the Democratic Process, and the Democratic Party. “Black women’s entrenchment in the Democratic Party reflects their commitment to advancing justice for Black communities from an intersectional lens.”
For years, the Democratic Party has faced internal and external criticism over what benefits the stalwart ranks of Black women have reaped from the party, the researchers highlighted.
Blunt Rochester’s run, supporters say, is the culmination of generations-long “table setting” work by Black women.
“There has been a lifetime of work to ensure Black female voices are heard and have a seat at the table,” said Cassandra Marshall, who served as a Wilmington delegate to the Democratic National Convention. “Black women have been doing all of this work to ensure the table is big enough for people to sit at.”
For generations, that “table setting” work has included first fighting for and later helping people register to vote. Black women have also canvassed, raised money, and utilized tight sisterhood and community networks to marshal support.
The groundwork laid by those efforts allowed Black women to respond swiftly to the elevation of Harris as a candidate for president. Mere hours after Biden dropped out of the presidential race and Harris became the presumptive nominee, thousands of Black women across the U.S. joined an online call to plan how to help elect her to office.
Marshall highlighted that in the neighboring state of Maryland, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks — who is also vying for Senate — “is also ready to take her seat” at the table. Alsobrooks, a Black woman, is also mounting a historic bid to become the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the Senate as she takes on former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in a tight contest.
“At this moment, we’re looking at Black women across the country who are stepping into these roles because they have been a part of setting the table,” Marshall said. “Lisa Blunt Rochester has been setting the table. And her commitment to service is just bred in the bone.”