WASHINGTON — There’s a heaviness hanging over this year’s Congressional Black Caucus conference, as U.S. Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana and other caucus members talk strategy ahead of the midterms just months away.
“Be angry enough to fight. Angry enough to vote,” Carter said Wednesday, the first day of the annual convening in the nation’s capital. “The only way to overcome that victimization is to vote.”
For many of his Black colleagues gathering this week, the political power they’ve spent years amassing for their communities back home is in doubt.
Black voters could lose as many as 19 House seats due the recent erosion of a crucial provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and aggressive Republican gerrymandering, an October 2025 report by Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter found. That’s nearly a third of the caucus, which is nonpartisan and began the current session with a record 62 members.
Carter has seen this story play out in Louisiana. The U.S. Supreme Court in April struck down the state’s second majority-Black congressional district — represented by fellow caucus member U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields — saying that Louisiana had relied too heavily on race when it redrew its map.
During a discussion panel Wednesday, Carter stressed that the consequences extend far beyond his state. Louisiana was “just the scene of the crime,” he said, maintaining that the court’s decision could reverberate throughout the country and impact the drawing of congressional, state legislative, city council, and school board districts.
Founded in 1971 to turn growing Black representation into collective influence, the caucus, known as the “conscience of Congress,” has long focused on issues affecting Black Americans. Now, in light of the fresh attack on the power of the Black ballot, members aren’t only decrying what they say is an attack on democracy — they’re also strategizing on how to protect political representation that has brought material gains, from new roads to new hospitals, to Black communities.
They refuse to accept defeat as the obstacles pile up.
“We are not going anywhere”
That sense of history — as well as a determination not to let the current political moment erase the gains of the past — was palpable Wednesday morning.
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama stood beneath sunny skies in Franklin Park, with temperatures in the 70s, to formally welcome conference attendees. She noted that when the caucus was founded 55 years ago, it had just 13 members — 12 men and Shirley Chisholm, who in 1968 became the first Black woman elected to Congress.
But Sewell, who represents Selma, Alabama, also invoked the civil rights struggle that helped to make those gains possible, positioning the threats confronting Black political power in 2026 as another test of whether hard-fought progress can be secured.
“Just think if John Lewis and those foot soldiers had given up when they were bludgeoned on a bridge in my hometown of Selma,” she said, referring to the 1965 Bloody Sunday march that fueled the passage of the Voting Rights Act. “Did they give up? And we shall not either.”
That message of resolve wasn’t limited to the caucus.
Janai Nelson, the president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, acknowledged the severity of the Supreme Court’s April decision. But she argued that the decision also made finding other ways to preserve Black voting power all the more urgent.
“While that was a devastating blow, we’re not deterred,” Nelson said, as the crowd erupted into cheers. “We’re finding other ways to secure our power.”
Nelson noted a different Supreme Court action days earlier as evidence that voting rights advocates could still triumph. This week, the court rejected the Trump administration’s latest attempt to place new restrictions on mail ballots before the midterms.
“We are rooted. We are rising,” Nelson said, repeating the theme of this year’s conference. “And we are not going anywhere.”
Turning resolve into strategy
Across panels and receptions, caucus members outlined a strategy that ranged from mobilizing Black voters to pursuing new state protections and pressing Congress to rebuild federal voting rights safeguards.
Voter mobilization was a particular focus during a Wednesday discussion panel centered on the Divine Nine, the historically Black fraternities and sororities that have been mainstays of Black civic and political life for more than a century.
The panel brought together caucus members who themselves belong to the Divine Nine, including U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, to discuss how the groups can educate and turn out voters ahead of the midterms. The conversation arrived as the Congressional Black Caucus Institute is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign that also enlists the Divine Nine to reach voters who are frequently overlooked by major campaigns.
Crockett framed her strategy for voter mobilization around solidarity. Black communities, she argued, can’t allow political or economic differences to drive wedges between them: “Our unity truly is our strength,” she said, urging attendees to become “our brothers and our sisters’ keepers.”
That also means reaching beyond the people who are already politically engaged. Crockett urged attendees to seek out Black voters who might feel disconnected from politics, listen to why they believe that their votes have no value, and show them that government decisions impact their lives.
“You connect the pain to policy,” Crockett explained, as the crowd began clapping and whooping. “When you can do that, you can engage people.”
For Crockett, this fight isn’t abstract. Texas Republicans fired the opening salvo in the nationwide redistricting war last year when, following President Donald Trump’s wishes, they redrew the state’s congressional map. They reshaped districts represented by Black Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Al Green, in an effort to create more Republican-leaning seats. Green was drawn out of his previous seat and ran for another this year, but he was defeated by Christian Menefee.
Crockett, who lost her bid this year to represent Texas in the Senate, has backed legal challenges alleging that the new lines dilute the voting strength of Black and brown Texans.
Fields echoed the emphasis on registration and mobilization during a Thursday discussion panel on the future of the Voting Rights Act. He was joined by U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures of Alabama, whose largely Black district was also redrawn this year, and by civil rights lawyers and grassroots advocates.
A week before the conference, Fields told Capital B that the strategy must expand beyond registration and mobilization, and include championing new safeguards at the state level and pressuring Congress to restore federal protections.
“Don’t sit on the sidelines,” Fields said. “You want to be mad about it? Then go vote about it.” He said that states should continue pursuing their own Voting Rights Acts, which have taken on greater significance as federal protections have weakened; to date, 11 states have enacted such measures, while others are trying to do the same.
Congress, Fields added, should pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would bring back many provisions protecting Black voting rights but was blocked in 2022. “We should keep trying, keep fighting,” he said.
Figures has previously described a similar strategy to Capital B: continue representing constituents even as district lines shift, while also persuading Black voters to do what they can to resist the erosion of their influence.
“They’re going to keep trying, and we’re going to keep, first and foremost, representing the people and fighting back,” Figures told Capital B in May. He has also participated in various rallies and other events aimed at directing attention to the scaling back of voting protections and supporting voter mobilization.
Anger amid the uncertainty
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri knows how disorienting this year has been. Voters in his state cast ballots in the August primary under a set of congressional lines that split Kansas City among three congressional districts, only for the Supreme Court weeks later to block that map for the general election.
At one point, Cleaver told Capital B from his office, his voice sounding tired but still determined, even his daughter called him to confirm whether she was still in his district.
But despite the heaviness at the conference, Cleaver said that the uncertainty hasn’t translated into a feeling of defeat.
He recalled recently being stopped by two men as he was coming up an elevator. They went on at length about what they saw as an injustice about the voting map and pressed him on what they could do about it — the sort of engagement that comes as recent polling and primary results suggest that threats to the ballot box are galvanizing some Black voters.
“People are angry,” Cleaver said. “And particularly in the Black American community, they’re paying very close attention.”
