Bias and Barriers Black Women Running for the Senate Must Overcome

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Only two Black women have ever been elected to the U.S. Senate. The most recent, Kamala Harris, left to become Vice President and the Senate now has no Black women again. Oakland’s Barbara Lee, who is running for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat, could be the third in American history. But she faces the same obstacles as the other Black female candidates before her, including fundraising and being taken seriously by political insiders and the media. This hour we’ll explore the barriers they face, and the quandary surrounding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pledge to name a Black woman to the Senate should Feinstein leave before her term ends. Guests: Shira Stein, Washington DC correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle Aimee Allison, founder and president, She the People - a national organization dedicated to building the political power of women of color Kimberly Ellis, director of the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women - former executive director of Emerge California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.1	From KQED.
0:33.2	Thank you. From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum.
0:51.5	I'm Scott Schaefer in for Mina Kim.
0:53.7	Coming up this hour, in the entire
0:55.4	history of the United States, just two black women have ever been elected to the U.S. Senate.
1:01.0	One was Kamala Harris, but when she left to become vice president, there were, once again,
1:06.2	no black women in the Senate. Now Oakland's Barbara Lee is running for Diane Feinstein's seat,
1:12.3	but like other black female candidates before her, Lee is facing considerable headwinds
1:17.4	around things like fundraising and being taken seriously by political insiders and the media.
1:23.1	This hour will explore the barriers they face and what it takes to overcome them. That's next on Forum.
1:29.3	Welcome to Forum.
1:36.3	I'm Scott Schaefer and today for Mina Kim.
1:40.3	Well, the U.S. Senate has never been a model of diversity. It was a big deal, if you remember, back when California became the first state to elect two women senators in 1992, and there have only been two black women senators ever. And after Kamala Harris left to become vice president, there were none, and there are none today. East Bay
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