Election 2024: Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks make Senate history

WASHINGTON — Delaware's Lisa Blunt Rochester and Maryland's Angela Alsobrooks made history in the November election after winning their respective Senate races.

Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks will be the first two Black women to serve together in the U.S. Senate at the same time.

With the historic wins, the two senators will double the number of Black women who have ever been elected to the Senate — from two to four. The chamber has historically been, and continues to be, mostly white men.

Leading up to Election Day, Blunt Rochester was almost assured to defeat the Republican candidate after an uncontested primary for the seat. She has held Delaware's sole U.S. House seat since 2017 and was the first African American and the first woman to represent the state in Congress.

Alsobrooks had a much tighter Senate race with Republican Larry Hogan, the popular former Maryland governor. Hogan and his GOP allies spent more than $40 million to try to flip Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin's open seat, according to AdImpact, which tracks ad spending

Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks took similar approaches in their campaign, embracing their own backgrounds but also not dwelling on the historic first they would bring to the job. Instead, the two women let voters see their Blackness and hear their voices as women — much like Vice President Kamala Harris did for her own 2024 campaign.

Who was the first Black woman elected to the Senate?

Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois was elected in 1992, becoming the first Black woman sworn into the Senate. She served a single term.

Harris was the second. She's vying to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office.