“There’s my sister senator,” Angela Alsobrooks says as she pops onto the Zoom screen and immediately fixes her eyes on fellow politician Lisa Blunt Rochester, who’s dressed in a shamrock suit and a simple pearl necklace. “I like the green.”
It’s the morning after the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris—“Oh my gosh, wasn’t it incredible?” Blunt Rochester exclaims—and the two women are set to see other at a luncheon later that day. But for now, they’re sitting down to discuss how their paths have become so intertwined.
Blunt Rochester, Delaware’s sole congresswoman, is running for the U.S. Senate. The state is solidly blue, so she’s almost certain to win come November, making her just the fourth Black woman to serve in the Senate. The first Black woman to ever do it was Carol Moseley Braun, who was elected in 1992; the second is currently a candidate for president; and the third is Sen. Laphonza Butler, who’s decided to leave Congress at the end of this term.
Alsobrooks, Prince George’s County executive, is also running for a U.S. Senate seat in her home state of Maryland. After surviving a brutal primary where she defeated a self-funded opponent who spent more than $60 million on the race, Alsobrooks is now up against the popular former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races. If Alsobrooks also wins, it will be the first time two Black women have ever been in the U.S. Senate at the same time—a staggering fact that highlights the historic lack of diversity in the 100-person body.
Both Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks are also surrogates for the Harris campaign and, throughout the years, they’ve counted her as a colleague and a mentor. “She’s a model,” Alsobrooks says. “She really is for all of us.” Harris helped blaze the trail to the Senate; the hope is, after November, the two of them can follow her down it, together. Find more of their wide-ranging discussion, including what it’s been like to lean on each other throughout this election cycle, below.
On connecting for the first time
Angela Alsobrooks: I met the congresswoman last year during Congressional Black Caucus weekend. There was a reception, and somebody said, “I’m going to introduce you to Lisa Blunt Rochester.” We really bonded over lunch, just talking to each other. From there is when I started referring to her as my sister senator, God willing. It’s been almost a year, and over that time, we’ve had a chance to build a relationship that I think is going to be fantastic to have in office.
Lisa Blunt Rochester: I still have my text to you [from when you won your primary]: “Enjoy this moment, sister senator to-be.” That [first] lunch though, we got downtime without other people around. It was just the two of us; it went much longer than it was supposed to go, because we started talking about our common bonds. We even both have children named Alex.
On the importance of having each other to lean on
Blunt Rochester: [Running for office] is a very isolating thing. Even though we’ve got all these people around us, and you’re going to all these events, it is a very solitary endeavor. That’s why you can say sister senator soon-to-be, because we know we’re experiencing some of the same challenges, whether it is self-funders, whether it is people’s perceptions, whether it’s microaggressions. I remember having experiences with two [male] senators and having to point out to them, “Did you notice how those guys didn’t talk to me, only to you?” Even the challenges of trying to raise money when Black women get maybe a third of what our white counterparts get when we call the same person. These are things that we share.
Alsobrooks: I remember I called a donor one time last year, and I guess he had read somewhere that I had a daughter. He said, “You have a daughter, right?” I said, “I do.” Then he said, “OK, stop now. I want you to explain to me how you expect to balance the various responsibilities that you have.” I was really struck by that. He stopped, and he waited. And I smiled and said, “Well, my daughter was five when I was elected. She’s in college. She’s doing fantastic.” Who multitasks better than women? I agree that these are shared experiences that we have, and we can laugh about [them], by the way. We can chuckle, and keep moving. It hasn’t stopped either one of us.
Blunt Rochester: That’s right. It will not stop us. Even knowing all that you’ve accomplished—the primary race was like a David and Goliath moment, and every time I would see you, despite how hard it was, you always had a smile on your face—being able to see that in other people inspires me to keep going. That’s important.
Blunt Rochester in Congress.
On combining forces on Capitol Hill
Blunt Rochester: Hopefully, I am going to have a built-in ally [in the Senate], and we’re going to be able to do some really big and bold work. You think of something like maternal mortality, where Black women die three times the rate of our white counterparts. Hopefully, we will be in the Senate and can work on it. Then we can partner with [other Black women] like Representatives Lauren Underwood and Robin Kelly in the House. That representation in all of these places is important, because one branch can’t do it alone. The history-making part is good, but the impact is what we’re all going for, to make a difference in people’s lives. The ability to go to the Senate and be one of 100—but also as two of only five [Black women senators] in the history of this country—would be incredible.
Alsobrooks: That was part of what we discussed at our lunch—that we were going to be bold. Really having an agenda that addresses so many of the issues we’ve come to understand, the issues we know our kids are concerned about, the issues related to being in the sandwich generation with aging parents, issues around prescription drug affordability and social security. So many of these issues are ones we understand so clearly from our own lived experience, but they’re the lived experience of so many families across America.
Blunt Rochester alongside members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
On advice from Vice President Kamala Harris
Blunt Rochester: I remember on the [first] anniversary of January 6, she called me to her office. I’m thinking, the media is beating up on her; I’m ready to go in and be supportive. And she flipped the tables. Instead, she was like, “How can I help you?” She gave me some advice that I don’t want to totally share, but it helped me enter into that anniversary. It was a traumatic time being trapped up in that gallery [on the day of the insurrection], and I had to be the first person speaking on behalf of members [of Congress] on that anniversary. She helped me center myself, steady myself, prepared me as a witness to this historic event. Now, America gets to see who I’ve always seen.
Alsobrooks: It’s so true, it’s the person that we have seen over all these years. America is finally getting to know her. Like Lisa, I had a similar experience this past fall when I received a call from the vice president at a really challenging time in this senate race. I was really quite surprised. And like Lisa, I won’t share the substance of everything she [said], but I can tell you that she takes her own advice. She does this big sisterly kind of thing—I’ve gotten many of these phone calls, where she’ll ask you a question, “Have you done X, Y, or Z?” and then she says, “Let me tell you,” so you know the point that you’re supposed to get. [She said] you get to be a joyful warrior. You don’t take any of it personal. You don’t take any of it in. You get to go out and continue to be full of joy. I’ve seen her take the advice that she’s given.
Harris joins Alsobrooks on stage at a campaign event in Maryland.
On sharing their families’ legacies on the campaign trail
Alsobrooks: It has been a point of pride, because we recognize that we didn’t get here alone. When I spoke at the Democratic National Convention and talked about my grandmother Sarah, who taught herself to type, so that she could create opportunity for her family, we recognize that—even those who are not elected—have run a leg of this race. You represent the experiences and hopes and dreams of people who contributed to how we got here. Sarah’s resilience and determination to create generational opportunity is not only germane to her. It is present in so many families that I have met across the state and across the country.
Alsobrooks on stage at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
I could keep going—neither of us would be in this moment without Shirley Chisholm or Barbara Jordan or Cheri Beasley, who ran for Senate in North Carolina and got very close. So many people created the opportunities for us to be in the space that we are in, named and unnamed. Coretta Scott King said that freedom is never really won; we have to fight it and win it in every generation. There are a lot of people who made sacrifices to ensure that this kind of progress could continue to happen. It’s going to be our responsibility to ensure that we make the kind of impact that allows people from similar backgrounds to have the same opportunity. The housekeepers like Sarah, the car salesmen like my father, the receptionists like my mother, those people should be able to see themselves in each of us.
Former congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who was also the first Black woman to be elected to the Texas Senate.
Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress and the first Black woman to run for president in the United States.
Blunt Rochester: I look at it as my roots and my wings. There was a document that my sister found that allowed our great-great-great-grandfather, who had been enslaved in Georgia, to have the right to vote. He signed an “X” on that document, because he couldn’t read or write, and we turned [that document] into a scarf that I carry with me. It was with me on the day I was sworn in that very first time. It was with me on January 6. I carry that, because it’s not only about my roots, but it’s representative of the roots of this country, and the things that we have made it through, whether it is slavery or Jim Crow or Reconstruction or two World Wars or 9/11 or the pandemic or George Floyd’s murder.
Then I also look at my wings. Us being in these positions allows our wings—the future—to see what is possible. I think of my children, I think especially of my granddaughter. That’s why this moment with Kamala Harris is so special to me, because my granddaughter not only will be able to see what the vice president has done, but will benefit from [her policies]. It is about our roots, but it’s also about our wings and the future that’s coming.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Madison is the digital deputy editor at ELLE, where she also covers news, politics, and culture. If she’s not online, she’s probably napping or trying not to fall while rock climbing.