Lace Watkins

This is the sentence that was going to be the lead for this month, as we venture into this month’s focus:

“As most know, we are heading into one of the most crucial midterm elections in recent memory.” 

But then I got to thinking: that midterms are always important; midterms have always been important. For several reasons–some obvious, some less so. 

The most obvious is that, on a national level, every house seat is volatile, and this is where I get so angry–but that’s for later in the series. Let’s just say that, for now, the undeniable gains made in 2020, are not only in danger of erosion, but rather they are crumbling as we speak. One could see the sands shifting even at their swearing in in 2021. Every seat occupied by a person who is BIPOC is a contested seat, especially those newly won during the media-coined Black Spring (and Year of the Woman) of 2020. 

Arguably, this should not be the case. Incumbents usually have an advantage, but this is far less true for people of color, particularly for Black incumbents, most particularly for Black incumbents who identify as women. 

For them, the post election euphoria–and the money–dissipated quickly.

Again, this should not have been the case. 

Later in this series, we are going to dive deeper into the numbers of fundraising to date, but for now, suffice it to say that almost every frosh Congresswoman from the class of 2020, is coming down the home stretch leading up to November with funding needs, and have had deep challenges. 

The second reason comes hard on the heels of the first. In Congress, and especially in the House, effectiveness is directly proportional to tenure. While it is possible to make real inroads as a new Congresswoman, the best way is to sit on meaningful committees and or write/support pending legislation; one rarely is able to do this kind of work right out of the gate. These first two years are spent forging relationships with more senior colleagues, learning the unwritten rules of the halls, and in so doing, learning the art of the possible. 

This can often mean that one only fully gets one’s sea legs after a second term. Congress is different from statehouses, and a world apart for those who came from local/regional government, or those with no electoral experience at all. 

We will talk about the above in more detail later, but for now, allow the takeaway to be that the electorate should have known this. They should have known that the fight wasn’t over when they gave 20 bucks to a PAC (that often used the visages of women of color and did actions and bought ads that benefited them, but who also often failed to funnel the majority of the monies to them and spread it across genders and races) and bought a bumper sticker. 

Successful incumbents never stop fundraising, and these incumbents didn’t–but their donors did. We will talk about this later this month too–the reliability (or, more accurately, the lack of reliability) of the white progressive vote, but for now, let’s note that the lack of sustained fundraising momentum was to the detriment of nontraditional incumbents. 

And we have yet to talk about young rising candidates coming out of state, regional, local, and grassroots government and activism. 

As we have often said here at Lace on Race about our Community Partners, it is a deep truth that the most innovative, challenging, and uncompromising ideas come out of grassroots.

This is true in politics as well. These ideas and principles sometimes ‘trickle up’ to more mainstream politics.

 In fact, that is how many–if not most–of the most enduring changes in our society occurred. There would have been no Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (and not for nothing, both are under deep attack) absent Martin Luther King. 

It must also be remembered that there would not be the unquestioned legacy of MLK without Malcolm, SNCC, and other individuals and organizations pushing leftward from ‘the margins’. 

Above, just in case you missed it, I noted that the deep gains of 1964 and 1965 are under attack–much like Roe from 1973.

If we have learned nothing else from this devastating 2022, even with a President who is, on paper, ‘on the side of the good’, it’s that nothing, nothing is settled law–even laws that most of us have lived our entire lives taking for granted. 

This is why this midterm election is so important. 

And why I can say with absolute confidence, that this is surely the most important midterm of all of our lives. 

And yes, I will probably be saying the exact same thing in 2026–that *that* midterm will be crucial. As it will be true for the midterm after that, and after that, and after that. 

Again, this is for another essay, but one thing we all need to hold is that we need to not let the sense of urgency and legacy dissipate like so much helium election to election. 

There is a reason I urge you all to ‘relentless reliability’.

Because it is crucial to the world we say we all want. 

Let’s start this conversation.  

An addendum: throughout this Elections issue, you will note that, while we can and will speak (strongly) about principles and ideas which will drive policy, initiatives, and candidates, we at Lace on Race, as a recognized and registered nonprofit, cannot take explicit positions in favor of individuals. The rules are less stringent when it comes to props, initiatives, and the like, but when I write in my official capacity as Executive Director of the Lace on Race Center for Racial Equity, I will err on the side of caution. 

On my personal page however, no such stricture holds. As a private citizen I can and will make my feelings and convictions known. I will not be sharing most of them on the LoR page, for reasons noted above. However, my posts on my personal page are public, and both pages are sharable.