Hundreds of Black candidates running for US midterm elections

Hundreds of Black candidates are running in midterm elections in the United States in November, after which Democrats are likely to lose the control of Congress to Republicans.

Many the candidates are looking to make history as the first Black elected official in their respective races, The Hill reported on Sunday.

“I’ve never seen a crop of more talented, hard-working and viable Black candidates than I have seen in this election cycle,” said Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, Political Director of The Collective PAC, an organization working to build Black political power.

“I think the tide really shifted after George Floyd was murdered,” Olasanoye continued. “A lot of Black folks around the country have been looking around to find folks who they could support, who they could get behind to run for office, and started looking in the mirror and seeing what President Obama always said, which is: We are the change we have been waiting for.”

He added that Black candidates “are running literally everywhere.”

The Collective PAC has endorsed some 200 of those candidates around the country.

Republicans are in the lead to control the US House of Representatives after this year’s midterm elections, with 230 seats projected for the GOP and 205 for Democrats, according to a new CBS News Battleground Tracker.

Republican victories in 230 districts would give GOP 12 seats more than the 218 required to control the House, the poll showed, according to The Hill.

And more Democrats reported being incited to vote by former President Donald Trump than by their own party leader.

Only 39 percent of Democrats say their midterm vote is “a lot” about President Joe Biden, compared to 62 percent of Republicans.

Other polls have also depicted a gloomy landscape for Democrats as they gear up for the 2022 midterm elections.