Generations Of Black Women In Politics — Sister Senators: Angela Alsobrooks & Lisa Blunt Rochester
When Senators Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware take their seats on the U.S. Senate floor, their presence marks a profound shift in American political representation. […] The post Generations Of Black Women In Politics — Sister Senators: Angela Alsobrooks & Lisa Blunt Rochester appeared first on Essence.
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By Melissa Noel ·Updated July 28, 2025 < /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… When Senators Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware take their seats on the U.S. Senate floor, their presence marks a profound shift in American political representation. For the first time, two Black women are serving simultaneously in the Senate—each bringing decades of public service experience and distinct policy visions.
“There is something powerful about walking into the chamber and knowing that I am not alone,” says Alsobrooks, who made history as the first woman and first Black person to be elected as a U.S. Senator in Maryland. She and Blunt Rochester have formed a tight bond as “sister senators.”
Banking Committee organizational business meeting to consider committee rules and procedures, subcommittee organization and jurisdiction for the 119th Congress, and the nomination of Eric Scott Turner, to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in Washington, DC on January 23, 2025. (Official U.S. Senate photo by Renee Bouchard) Alsobrooks also spent 27 years in public service before her 2024 Senate win, including as Maryland’s first domestic violence prosecutor and Prince George’s County’s first Black woman County Executive.
“Every successive generation should do better than the one that came before,” she says. “That’s our assignment—to knock down systemic barriers that prevent our kids from opening any door.” This focus on economic opportunity defines Alsobrooks’s Senate agenda. “We have to continue to work toward social justice, but social justice is amplified by advances in economic prosperity,” she says, explaining her emphasis on access to capital, home ownership and generational wealth.
Blunt Rochester’s background is in labor leadership. She served as Delaware’s Secretary of Labor and as CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, and she brings that experience to the Senate. After losing her husband when she was 52, the legislator’ssrc="https://www.essence.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/LBR-Clean-Slate-1-scaled.jpeg" alt="Generations Of Black Women In Politics — Sister Senators: Angela Alsobrooks & Lisa Blunt Rochester" width="400" height="320" />U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) signs the Senate bill she will introduce as bipartisan lawmakers mark the end of Second Chance Month with Federal Clean Slate Legislation on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shannon Finney/Getty Images for The Clean Slate Initiative)
As the sister senators stand on the shoulders of trailblazers like Carol Moseley Braun (1992), Kamala Harris (2016) and Laphonza Butler (2023), both remain focused on creatingrel="tag">Angela Alsobrooks black women in politics Lisa Blunt Rochester
The post Generations Of Black Women In Politics — Sister Senators: Angela Alsobrooks & Lisa Blunt Rochester appeared first on Essence.
