Black women voters demand change amid nationwide political discontent

Black women voters report high rates of political frustration in the U.S., but remain motivated to vote, studies and experts say.

With high grocery prices, reports of racial discrimination and voting rights in jeopardy, Black women voters are saying there could not be a better time to vote.

Issues before the community

This summer, the National Association on the Advancement of Colored People announced a $20 million Get Out the Vote campaign, the organization’s largest investment in voter mobilization.

Amari Fennoy, the NAACP’s national director of mobilization, told The Wash, that Black women are such a large voting demographic because “You don’t have to tell us what needs to be done.”

Fennoy listed a series of issues she said are before voters: the Black community’s public outcry surrounding the suspicious death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells in July; hangings of Black people in the South; nationwide legal discrimination; healthcare disparities; the affordability crisis; education; and attempts to gerrymander congressional districts to snuff out the impact of Black voters.

She said that Black women’s agency and determination to combat injustices is shown through casting a ballot: “We have to have a collective action. We have to have collective conversation. And we also have to have education.”

Nearly 9 in 10 still motivated to vote

The Highland Project, a social impact organization that supports multi-generational wealth, wellness, and financial freedom for Black women, backs Black women through resource-sharing and coalition-building.

In September, its Sixth Annual National Poll of Black Women Voters, released in partnership with brilliant corners Research and Strategies, said that more than 9 in 10 of the Black women they surveyed indicated that they were “dissatisfied with the direction of the country.” Despite their frustration, 87% of Black women voters said they still feel motivated to vote.

Mary Pat Hector, a leader at The Highland Project, said in an email to The Wash, that she works closely with young women voters who “continue to believe that change is possible.”

Hector added, “Their commitment reminds me that we must take both the concerns and the possibilities seriously.”

More believe in power of vote

Other organizations are raising concerns as well. The National Coalition of Black Civic Participation’s 10th Black Women’s Roundtable released its September survey results after polling 1,000 Black women voters.

The coalition’s annual Power of the Sister Vote poll found that three in four Black women expressed distrust in the president. However, 7 in 10 of survey respondents still felt that their vote has power, a 20-point increase from 2024.

Social Security and Medicare, reducing the cost of living, racial justice, voting rights, restoring DEI, abortion rights, and mass federal layoffs rose as top priorities.

In an email to The Wash, Hazeen Ashby, senior advisor to the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said that Black women have experienced the most job loss in the past several years, with disproportionate loss among college-educated Black women.

“This is the time to demand bold change and begin building toward a Third Reconstruction where everyone’s rights and freedoms are protected,” Ashby said.

‘Imperative to show up’

Kay Hall, a D.C. resident of over 60 years, told The Wash that without D.C. statehood, the city’s politics change every two years. She said she worries about the growing number of vacant homes and businesses in her neighborhood as a result.

“Where is the affordable housing? Where? What is considered affordable?” Hall asked. Hall said that a major grocery also closed near her within the last year, but she has not seen any announcements for another store to fill the gap it leaves.

Zataunia Heard, a D.C. resident and mother to a young voter herself, said she organizes alongside her local community to combat the lack of affordable housing in D.C. and food insecurity in Ward 8.

“Even if that hasn’t always been the sentiment, I know a lot of people think that their vote doesn’t matter,” Heard said. She said that it is imperative for Black women to show up at the polls.

Andra Gillespie, political commentator, scientist, and associate professor of political scientist at Emory University told The Wash that women tend to be more participatory than men when voting. This is due in part to the disproportionate incarceration of Black men and the loss of their voting rights, she said.

Black women are “single largest proportionally speaking Democratic voting bloc in the United States,” Gillespie said. “You need Black women to turn out at high rates and to support Democratic candidates, especially in states that are competitive.”