Browse Publications: Black Elected Officials
Blacks and the 2006 Midterm Elections
The following is a brief review of some of the available evidence of what transpired on November 7, 2006, when the Democrats gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The black vote played a critical role in the outcome of a number of closely contested elections, especially for the U.S. Senate. In particular, this review focuses on the behavior and significance of African American voters in the 2006 midterm elections and on the changing number and profile of black candidates for federal and statewide offices, as well as their performance at the polls.
Changing of the Guard: Generational Differences Among Black Elected Officials
Since 1996, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' National Opinion Polls have tracked differences in the political attitudes and public policy preferences between different generations of African Americans. Some of these differences have been quite substantial. They are reflected for example, in partisan identification, with older African Americans continuing to identify most closely with the Democratic party while a significant percentage of younger black adults, about one-third are declaring themselves political independents.
Black Elected Officials: A Statistical Summary, 2001
The last edition of Black Elected Officials: A Statistical Summary showed that as of January 2000, thenumber of black elected officials (BEOs) in the U.S. was 9,040. This edition, which records the mostcurrent complete data for those in office as of January 2001 shows that in the intervening year,the number of BEOs rose by 61 to reach 9,101, a 0.7 percent increase over the previous year (Table 1). In 1970, the first year in which the Joint Center collected this data, there were 1,469BEOs. The newest total of 9,101 black elected officials in 2001 represents a historic high.
« Previous 1 2