The 2006 Midterms and the Congressional Black Caucus
The 2006 Midterms and the Congressional Black Caucus
David Bositis
Sept 18, 2006
There will be several changes in the Congressional Black Caucus following the November 7 elections. At this time, there are 43 black Democrats and eight black Republicans running for U.S. House of Representative seats. The eight black Republicans represent the lowest number of black GOP nominees since the Joint Center began tracking black major party nominees for federal office in 1990; the previous low was ten nominees four years ago. In 1994 and 2000, there were 24 black Republican nominees for the U.S. House. None of the black Republican nominees are expected to win.
The 43 black Democratic nominees represent a small decline from a record 47 in 2004. At this time, it appears that there will be at least 41 CBC members in the U.S. House in the new Congress (39 U.S. Representatives and two Delegates). There is only one race with a CBC member at this time that is uncertain. Representative William Jefferson (LA, 2nd District), who has been implicated in a bribery scandal, will face eight Democratic and three Republican candidates on November 7; if no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the vote, there will be a run-off on December 9. New Orleans has lost much of its black population since Hurricane Katrina last year, and while this district was a black-majority district when it was drawn after the 2000 Census, it is not clear that the majority still exists. Since some of the candidates in the contest are white, some possibility exists that a white candidate will win the seat.
At this time, the new members of the CBC in the 110th Congress will be Yvette Clarke (NY, 11th District), Keith Ellison (MN, 5th District), and Hank Johnson (GA, 4th District).