COLLEGE PARK, Maryland — Angela Alsobrooks won her Senate race here on Tuesday. With that victory, she achieved something never before seen in the 235-year history of the Senate: serving alongside another Black woman in the upper chamber.
Earlier this evening, Lisa Blunt Rochester cruised to victory in deep blue Delaware.
“Now, it’s remarkable to think that in two years, America will celebrate its 250th birthday, and in all those years, there have been more than 2,000 people who have served in the United States Senate, and only three have looked like me,” Alsobrooks said.
Both candidates followed what is now a familiar playbook that Kamala Harris established in her own presidential run: Don’t talk too much about history-making.
“It is good to make history, in some ways, because hopefully you knock down the door and somebody can see themselves in you,” Blunt Rochester told POLITICO in late September. “It can’t be the sole motivation.”
California Sen. Laphonza Butler , a longtime ally of Harris who decided to forgo a run herself for a full Senate term, said both newly minted senators’ decision not to lean too much into race and gender would be “sort of Captain Obvious.”