The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is launching a super PAC to mobilize Black voters ahead of 2024 in an effort to give the House a Democratic majority and, in the process, elect the nation’s first Black Speaker of the House.
The Rolling Sea Action Fund will raise money as well as invest in different advertising and campaigns in the upcoming election cycle. The Democrats currently hold 212 seats in Congress, meaning they’d need to flip a minimum of five seats to become the majority party in 2024.
The CBC’s former Political Director Niccara Campbell-Wallace is the executive director of the new fund. Campbell-Wallace told The Hill that one of the main goals of the fund will be to recognize that Black voters are the “backbone” of the Democratic party.
“When Black voters turn out, they turn out, and they fight for democracy,” Campbell-Wallace said. “This organization shares the mission and goals of the CBC PAC, which is focused on recruitment. This will be an avenue to really, really target folks in battlefield districts that are crucial for us to take back the House in 2024.”
The Rolling Sea Action Fund will target districts that have around 8 percent or more of a Black voting age population. The goal is to invest eight figures into mobilization efforts and campaigns, Campbell-Wallace said.
But the fund will also focus on year-round political investment in Black communities, something many activists have said doesn’t happen.
Though Black voters consistently cast their ballots for Democrats in higher numbers than any other racial group, Democrats have faced criticism from activists who accuse politicians of avoiding Black voting areas until little more than a week before election day.
Campbell-Wallace told The Hill that the new super PAC will be “intentional and authentic” with their messaging to Black voters.
The Rolling Sea Action Fund comes after the 2022 midterms saw a record number of Black candidates run and win their elections. At the federal level, the CBC welcomed its largest cohort ever with 58 members.
Congress also saw Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) make history last year as the first Black lawmaker to lead a congressional party. His rise to head the House Democrats nearly saw the nation’s first Black Speaker, with all 212 Democrats nominating Jeffries in January. But with the Republican majority, those hopes were squashed when Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took the Speakership.
“Representation does matter, you have to see yourself in order to be what you see,” Campbell-Wallace said. “Having all these voices at the table with different thoughts, different types of Black people – because we know Black people are not a monolith – really lends itself to that.”
Though the fund will focus mainly on federal elections, it does plan to partner with grassroots organizations as well. One of the groups of voters they’ll be focused on is Black men.
The Democratic party has been struggling with Black men in recent years. The 2020 election saw Black men’s support for Democrats drop to its lowest point in history.
Though 80 percent of Black men supported Joe Biden in 2020, compared to 82 percent for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the level of support has not reached the 95 percent of support Barack Obama won in 2008, according to an NBC poll.
But having voices like Jeffries, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), chair of the CBC, and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), CBC PAC chair, is important to showing Black men that the CBC is listening to their concerns.
“We understand that there needs to be a direct effort targeting Black men and speaking to them in the way that they feel they’re understood and heard,” Campbell-Wallace said. “Having strong Black men and strong Black voices to really advocate for them is so essential. I come from a line of strong Black men, and so I love Black men and this is a sort of love letter to them.”
This story was updated at 10:52 a.m.