ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the expanding boundaries of African Americans in the quest for elective office. The ambitions of the first and second waves or generations of blacks elected in the 1960s through the 1980s were limited to Congress, big city mayoralties and lower-level state executive offices, such as lieutenant governor. After the election of the second wave of black elected officials in 1989, African American political scientists employed the concept of deracialization to explain what some saw as a new phenomenon in black politics. Alan Gerber summarized the character of the black structure of ambition as follows: African American members of Congress rarely seek higher office, prospects for winning statewide are discouraging, and no African American has moved from the House to the Senate or to the governor's mansion. The chapter examines the new structure of ambition for black politicians, with five case studies of African Americans, who won major party nominations for governor and US Senate in 2006.
