A new era of Black political power is coming to Washington.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is on track to become the first Black speaker of the House. A record number of Black senators will take office in January. And the Congressional Black Caucus, which spent the past year bracing for losses, will instead begin the next Congress with more members than ever.

Black voters helped make it all happen, fueling Democratic gains deep into Republican territory in last week’s midterm elections. The results have set the stage for one of the most influential classes of the caucus since its founding in 1971.

Caucus members had expected to lose ground. A nationwide redistricting push, combined with a Supreme Court ruling that made racial gerrymandering nearly impossible to challenge, put several of their seats at risk. Instead, the total number of Black lawmakers will only be one shy of the current record of 68 if Scott Colom wins his Senate race in Mississippi, and fall just two people short of it if he loses. And because Democrats, who made significant gains last week, have dominated the caucus’s ranks in recent years, its incoming chairman says the group will be the largest in its history.

For Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who is running unopposed to lead the caucus, the milestone evokes “a powerful emotion of fairness.”

“So many people had given up hope” under “the ugliness and the hate-filled actions of the Trump administration,” Carter said, pointing to cuts to federal healthcare programs, food assistance and student loans. “Tuesday’s election brought back hope that there is an opportunity to restore the rule of law.”

President Donald Trump’s record-low approval rating helped Democrats flip Republican seats, including in states that had been GOP strongholds for decades. “He caused a lot of pain,” Carter said. “We’re ready to get to work.”

In interviews, more than a half-dozen incoming freshmen in the caucus, which is made up entirely of Democrats, said they expect the group to once again champion the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. They will have a powerful ally in Jeffries. Their biggest obstacle will be Trump, who has praised the Supreme Court’s decision to gut the original 1965 law as a “big win for equal protection.”

Democrats would need Republican support to pass the bill with a veto-proof majority, but its supporters want a vote regardless.

For Sen.-elect Juliana Stratton of Illinois, one of at least six Black senators set to be sworn in, the fight is personal. Her late father marched from Selma to Montgomery to protect voting discrimination.

“I’m going to fight every day to make sure my father’s memory and what he did for this country is not in vain,” Stratton said of the bill named for Lewis.

Stratton said she was not surprised by the energy of Black voters in the midterms. “When you try to come for our voting rights that our ancestors fought for; people who are still here, walking the Earth,” she said, “I knew that was going to be a motivating force.”

In North Carolina, Rep.-elect LaKesha Womack defeated the former Republican state House speaker, an architect of a redistricting plan designed to benefit the GOP. The state’s House delegation flipped from 10 Republicans and four Democrats to 10 Democrats and four Republicans.

“Even the gerrymandering, I think, helped us to deliver historic wins,” Womack said. “It just really showed that you know when you run good candidates, then they’re gonna win, but we do need to fight for fair maps.”

A ‘more powerful’ caucus

Nearly all Black members of Congress will belong to the Democratic majorities in both chambers in 2027, noted Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which tracks Black representation on Capitol Hill.

“In that way, it’s a much more powerful representation than even occurred at the 119th Congress,” Asante-Muhammad said.

No Republicans are expected to be a part of the Congressional Black Caucus next year. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican returning to Congress, has never sought to become a member since arriving in 2011. That leaves the caucus without a Republican member, which it hasn’t had since 2018, who could serve as a liaison to the White House.

Jeffries has already met with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, to discuss possible areas of compromise with a Democratic-led House, a meeting that drew some blowback within his party.

Others are less hopeful. Delegate-elect Janelle Sarauw, D-V.I., who will be a non-voting member, was blunt about the caucus’s prospects with the White House after Trump named Stephen Miller, a conservative hardliner, his new chief of staff.. “Unless there’s some miracle, I don’t see a harmonious relationship at all,” Sarauw said.

Caucus members also plan to push for investment in the South ahead of 2028, as Democrats try to build on gains in states such as Texas and South Carolina.

“One thing is for certain: the Republicans noticed the strength of the South,” said Carter. “They saw it like I saw it. Unfortunately, some of our Democratic leaders did not. Now they do. I intend to keep the light as bright and the sound as loud as possible to encourage a continued investment in the South.”

‘New generation’

The incoming class reflects broader shifts within the Democratic Party. At least four new members identify as democratic socialists: Melat Kiros of Colorado, Donavan McKinney of Michigan, Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York and Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania.

Carter said he welcomes the ideas of the party’s new progressives, even as ideological divisions begin to complicate Jeffries’s bid for speaker, which Carter strongly backs. Womack said she is waiting to see whether anyone else enters the race.

“There’s an ongoing, very divisive effort to break us up,” Carter told MS NOW’s “Politics Nation with Al Sharpton” on Sunday. “I will tell you that those people that are working to challenge our leader and soon-to-be Speaker of the House will realize what an incredible leader he is.”

The caucus will see younger faces join their ranks, too. Kiros, 29, will be the first woman from Generation Z, roughly those born between 1997 and 2012, to serve in Congress. Rep.-elect Adrian Boafo, a 32-year-old Maryland Democrat, said 2027 is “a moment for a new generation of leadership,” adding that “the passing of the guard” was a key theme in this year’s election.

“I’ve seen a lot of folks in which we’re in the same generation,” said Rep.-elect Cyril Jefferson, D-N.C., another millennial at 34, but “those who are older than us, they’re just as fired up and ready to go.”

Rabb hopes Democrats pursue a populist agenda that especially benefits Black women, who he said were “behind this blue tsunami.”

“If you take care of Black women, you take care of America,” Rabb said.

Asked about his hopes for the group’s goals next year, Rep.-elect Oliver Gilbert simply pointed to its long-standing mission of being “the conscience of the Congress.”

“They keep reminding folks that the American dream has to be real for every American.”

Hannah Marr contributed.

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