Blue wave boosts Black House count to 60 despite new maps
Midterm victories in the South offset district changes that threatened to lower representation further.
By Samuel Hayes ·
Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterm elections secured enough wins to keep the number of Black members of the U.S. House at 60, preventing a sharper decline. This count includes nonvoting members and is down from 63 in the current Congress. The total remains only one seat above the record low of 56 set after the 1876 election.
The Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais weakened the Voting Rights Act earlier this year. That ruling allowed states to redraw congressional maps in ways that reduced the electoral power of Black voters. Alabama's Republican-led legislature used this authority to redraw the state's 2nd Congressional District, making it heavily Republican-leaning.
Rep. Shomari Figures of Alabama won reelection in that newly drawn district. A lower federal court had previously found the new map tainted by intentional race-based discrimination, which would have given Black-preferred candidates no realistic chance of winning. Figures avoided the fate of Rep. Cleo Fields, a Louisiana Democrat who retired after her district was redrawn following the same court ruling.
High voter turnout among Black Americans, particularly in the South, drove these Democratic victories. Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, described the results as a Black wave. He noted that the electorate was motivated by attacks on voting rights and the gerrymandering efforts underway in several states.
In North Carolina, Rep. Don Davis retained his seat despite redistricting by the state's GOP-controlled legislature. Two incoming Black House Democrats, Cyril Jefferson and LaKesha Womack, flipped districts that had been held by white Republicans for years. Democrats also gained control of statewide offices in Texas and Georgia, which may limit future redistricting threats.
Georgia's outgoing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced last week that he will not call a special session on redistricting before leaving office in January. Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms will take office as the first Black woman elected to the position. This shift in power reduces the immediate pressure to redraw Georgia's congressional maps against Black incumbents.
Experts warn that the current stability may not last. Kareem Crayton, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, compared the current moment to the post-2008 election period, where many Democratic gains were reversed within two years. He argued that cautious policy approaches are needed to protect rights under difficult conditions.
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies expects the full impact of the Callais ruling to emerge in the 2028 and 2030 election cycles. Janai Nelson of the Legal Defense Fund noted that the effects of the ruling have not yet reached state legislatures, city councils, or school boards. She predicts that as new maps are drawn for these local offices, Black voters in the South may face significant challenges to their electability.
