The past five decades have seen increasing representation for Black women in US politics, with success for candidates in both local and national elections. In her new book, Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors, Sharon D. Wright Austin tracks the history of African American mayors in the US. She writes that Black female Republican women face electoral barriers including the overwhelming support Black voters have for Democrats, and a lack of support and funding from the Republican Party. Considering their important role in determining elections, she writes that the Republican Party should consider increasing its outreach to Black voters, especially Black women.
My new book, Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors discusses the successful campaigns and governing styles of African American women mayors in American cities. In 1973, Lelia Foley-Davis of Taft, Oklahoma and Doris Davis of Compton, California became the first Black female mayors in America – Foley in a small predominantly African American town and Davis in a larger predominantly Black city. Since then, Black women have won elections in several cities with diverse populations, including larger ones such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Currently, all of the Black female mayors of major cities are Democrats with the exception of Fontana, California’s Mayor Acquanetta Warren. She is also one of only a few Black female Republicans to ever hold office. Who are some of the Black female Republican women mayors and what barriers do women like them encounter when running for mayor?
Barriers to Black Republicans winning office
Larger numbers of Black Republicans are now running for office. In recent years, candidates like US Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who also recently ran for president, US Representative Byron Donalds of Florida and former Congressman Will Hurd of Texas won elections as Republican candidates. Yet, these victories are rare because few Black male Republican candidates, and an even smaller number of Black women, have won. Why is this?
One reason is because of the overwhelming support Black voters provide to Democratic candidates because of their membership in the Democratic Party as well as their agreement with these candidates on most issues. Currently, Black women are the most loyal Democratic constituency. In 2020, 93 percent of Black women voted for President Biden. Barack Obama received 96 percent of the Black female vote in 2008 and 98 percent from Black women under age of 30 in 2012. As of 2022, only one of every ten Black voters identified as a Republican. The inability of Black Republican candidates to win large numbers of votes from Black citizens is only one obstacle that they must overcome when running for office.
Black female Republican mayors
Black female Republican mayors have indeed been rare throughout American history. Born in Philadelphia in 1932, funeral home owner Willie Mae James Leake served as Chester, Pennsylvania’s first female, first African American, and first African American female mayor from 1986 to 1991. Chester, Pennsylvania’s oldest city, had been dominated by Republican politicians during the time of Leake’s election and had a majority-Black population. Born in 1933 in Galena, Illinois, LaMetta Wynn, a nurse, was mayor of Clinton, Iowa from 1995 to 2007. In 1995, she defeated five men and won the election with 54 percent of the vote in a city with an only four percent Black population.
Chicago native Yvonne Brown was elected as Tchula, Mississippi Mayor in 2000 and served until 2009. This victory made her the only Black female Republican mayor ever elected in an almost all-Black and Democratic Mississippi town. Her father, Bennie Rayford, ran the district campaign for Jessie Jackson’s presidential race in Toledo Ohio and competed for an Illinois state representative position in 1985. After her family moved from Chicago to Mississippi in the late 1980s, they joined the Republican Party after becoming disenchanted with Democrats and because of their Christian beliefs.
Finally, many are familiar with former US Representative Ludmya (Mia) Love (R-UT) as the only Black Republican woman to ever serve in Congress (from 2015 to 2019). But she also was the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah from 2010 to 2014. The daughter of Haitian immigrants and born in New York in 1974, Love is a Black conservative Mormon who began a political career after winning a seat on the Saratoga Springs City Council in 2003. In November 2009, she was elected mayor after winning 59 percent of the vote in a city with a less than two percent Black population and served until her election to Congress.
A lack of support – and funding – from the Republican Party
Mayors Leake, Wynne, Brown, and Love all served in small cities or towns where each gained a following because of community service records that later influenced them to run for mayor. In fact, all the Black female Democratic mayors in my study were also very active in community groups, sororities, and/or churches. However, some of these women were disappointed by the lack of support they sometimes received from other Republicans. For example, in 2006, Yvonne Brown was the Republican nominee for Congress in Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District in 2006 but lost to African American Democrat Bennie Thompson. In both her mayoral and congressional races, Brown indicated that she received little funding from the Mississippi Republican Party. In fact, the lack of funding has placed a significant barrier in the homes of Black Republican female candidates. According to Brown, the national Republican Party refuses to support Black female Republican candidates because they are not competing in “targeted” races that appear to be winnable.
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Acquanetta Warren’s winning coalition
The nation’s only current Black female Mayor Acquanetta Warren was first elected in 2010 and more recently in 2022 after serving on the Fontana City Council. She is now serving a fourth term in a majority Latino city in Southern California. Unlike most cities governed by Black female mayors, Fontana has a less than ten percent poverty rate, a less than ten percent Black population, and a majority Democratic registered voting base. Her city differs from most governed by Black female mayors that tend to have large Black populations, are majority Democratic, and are in the South.
Warren was able to develop a winning coalition by emphasizing deracialized (race-neutral) issues, her law enforcement and economic development backgrounds, and, according to her, “the power of conservative principles of hard-work, self-reliance and personal responsibility.” One of Fontana’s most successful businessmen and Republican donors, Phil Cothran, a successful insurance company owner, has supported Republican (and some Democratic) aspirants for four decades. He publicly endorsed and contributed financially to her 2002 council bid as well as her mayoral campaigns.
How was Acquanetta Warren able to receive extensive Republican Party support when many other African American women failed to? As an African American female Republican, Warren was perceived as a novelty among Republicans as well as a “symbol of Republican inclusivity.” Finally, she received significant support among Democrats who, some believe, are unaware that she is a Republican.
Black voters and the future of the Republican Party
In the fifty years since the first African American women won elections for mayor, much has changed in American politics. African American women once seldom won elections, but now there are record numbers at all political levels. Since 1973, a greater number of Black female candidates have also run for and won local elections, but also national elections (as indicated by the 2020 election of Vice President Kamala Harris) and statewide elections (as indicated by Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears 2023 victory). Also, Black women (and men) became a powerful voting bloc with the abilities to determine the outcomes of elections. Clearly, the most significant political achievement involving an African American consisted of Barack Obama’s service as the nation’s first Black president for eight years.
Despite these achievements, African Americans must continue to debate whether it is a wise strategy to primarily belong to one political party. One must also question whether the Republican Party should increase its outreach to Black voters, especially to Black women, considering their important role in determining the outcomes of many elections.