It’s no secret that in November, political candidates across the country who spoke out against the current administration won resounding victories.
Many have taken heart and hope from those elections.
But after winning office comes governing.
Will these candidates respond to the interests of those who elected them?
Could New Jersey be a bellwether for diverse states?
Let’s take New Jersey — which could be a bellwether for other highly diverse states.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill, sworn in on Jan. 20, won the gubernatorial race by a decisive 14%, a clear mandate.
But a mandate for what? And from whom?
Sherrill lost the White vote by more than 100,000 votes. Fifty-two percent of white voters — who made up 70% of the electorate — voted for her opponent, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump. Only 41% of White men and 54% of White women pulled the lever for Sherrill.
So who delivered the governor-elect her mandate?
Ninety-four percent of Black voters did — just like we did for her predecessor, Gov. Phil Murphy, in 2017 and 2021.
So did Latino voters (68%) and Asian voters (82%). In total, voters of color delivered a 500,000-vote advantage that powered Sherrill into office.
Black voters have been ‘perfecters of this democracy’
The way Black people have shown up in these elections recalls Nikole Hannah-Jones’ assertion that “[m]ore than any other group in this country’s history, [Black people] have served, generation after generation, in an overlooked but vital role: It is we who have been the perfecters of this democracy.”
In the most perilous of times — when Black people and other people of color are under relentless attack — the stakes of whether the new administration delivers on the correct mandate could not be higher.
Sherrill will not only assume the most powerful governor’s seat in the nation, she will inherit one of America’s wealthiest and most diverse states. But it’s also one of its most unequal.
By design, dating back to slavery, Black New Jerseyans face among the worst racial disparities in the nation: in health, education, environmental exposure, incarceration, school segregation and wealth. The racial wealth gap stands at a staggering $643,000 between Black and Latino families and their White counterparts.
Black infants are more than three times as likely to die in their first year as White infants, and Black women are nearly seven times as likely to die during childbirth. Black children attend some of the nation’s most segregated and under-resourced schools.
And New Jersey spends $456,000 per child per year to incarcerate kids in a youth prison system where Black youth are 29 times more likely to be incarcerated than White youth — the worst disparity in America.
These disparities reflect the lived realities of the very voters who made Sherrill’s election possible. And that inequitable foundation has directly contributed to today’s political earthquake.
Sherrill must adopt a transformative agenda
To meet the mandate of the 94% in New Jersey, the state must adopt an agenda that is transformative, not symbolic; bold, not timid; and reparative, not performative.
It must:
Advance the policies advocated by the New Jersey Statewide Black Agenda and the New Jersey Reparations Council, who have listened to thousands of New Jerseyans across the state who are demanding that New Jersey close our staggering racial wealth gap
Defend immigrant families
Protect Black mothers
Address the affordability crisis
Enforce environmental justice measures
Integrate New Jersey’s highly segregated schools
Reimagine public safety by investing in community resources
Safeguard our democracy
Key, too, will be the Legislature’s immediate passage — with Sherrill’s support — of the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act, which is more critical than ever given relentless attacks on the federal voting rights act.
As it has throughout history, responding to the mandate from Black people will make us all better.
Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore, who walked the streets of Newark alongside Sherrill, understands that closing the racial wealth gap is the unfinished “work of repair.”
He announced a historic plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into Black homeownership, Black-owned businesses, and the full ecosystem of work, wages and wealth that our communities have been denied for generations.
And, as Sherrill took the oath of office on Jan. 20 — just one day after we remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — the Black voters who delivered her mandate will hold her accountable to make the same kinds of investments.
If she has our back, we will have hers.
Ras Baraka is mayor of Newark. The Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer is co-founder and executive director of Salvation and Social Justice. Ryan P. Haygood is president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.