ABSTRACT
Michael Steele defied the odds by making the 2006 senate contest competitive in a decidedly blue state and by picking up 25 percent of the black vote despite high national anti-Republican sentiment. This chapter explains how Steele defied the expectations. It pays particular attention to how Steele spoke about black empowerment, black racial consciousness, and Republican partisanship, and synergies between the three constructs, in ways that were unanticipated by the Democrats. The chapter addresses how Steele capitalized on black angst over the substantive and descriptive dividends received from Democratic allegiance-including resentment over Cardin's primary defeat of Kweisi Mfume-despite the 2006 Democratic lieutenant governor-nominee being a black State Delegate from Prince George's County. It situates the 2006 Senate campaign as a counterfactual to the deracialization construct. The deracialization construct is a rational choice explanation of black politics practiced against the backdrop of racial antagonism, socioeconomic stratification, and bloc voting.
