Commentary from the advocacy group ImpactCT
Black History Month invites reflection not only on the history and struggles we commemorate, but also on the present we are building. This year, it also comes in the wake of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s death. Rev. Jackson was an organizer at heart who built one of the most durable, multiracial political coalitions of the modern Democratic Party.
If the Republican Party of the last 10 years is leaning harder into nativism and exclusionary politics, how is it possible that Democrats are losing ground among nonwhite voters? The idea that “racism should be disqualifying” is morally true. But our politics is not a morality test; it’s a decision voters make in the context of their lives and their sense of whether anyone is fighting for them in a way they actually feel.
The 2024 election suggests that Democrats relied too heavily on the assumption that most Black voters will always vote Democratic. That assumption no longer holds. We’ve all seen the data showing a shift in 2024, concentrated among exactly the kinds of voters Democrats cannot afford to lose. The shift doesn’t appear to be permanent but as we’ve written before, hoping the other side fails isn’t a strategy. And, just because some voters of color seem ready to move away from Trump and Republicans, their support of Democrats in 2026 and beyond is not locked in until they feel their elected representatives understand their lives and will deliver meaningful results.
This is not simply a national story; it is a warning sign for states like Connecticut. Our state is becoming more diverse, whether political institutions fully reflect that reality yet or not. One CGA demographic table shows people of color rising from 28.8% in 2010 to 33.5% in 2020. Census QuickFacts puts White, non-Hispanic at 62.2%.
There’s another layer here that doesn’t get discussed enough: racism isn’t only about rhetoric. It’s also about exclusion from decision-making and from outcomes. Connecticut has had a Democratic governor for nearly two decades and Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers for nearly sixty consecutive years. Yet the racial funding gap and achievement gap in our education system remain staggering. Connecticut is one of the most segregated states in the country, and school segregation closely tracks housing segregation and wealth. Students in districts serving predominantly Black and Latino communities continue to receive fewer resources and face wider opportunity gaps than their peers in wealthier, predominantly white communities.
The same dynamic exists in housing. White Democrats routinely support affordable housing in theory, much of which is occupied by Black and Latino families, yet local resistance and zoning barriers continue to constrain where and how that housing is built. The result is persistent segregation, limited mobility, and structural inequality that has survived decades of Democratic control.
So, it makes sense that many voters don’t experience Democrats as delivering meaningful, concrete improvements in the areas that shape daily life. Voters of color have good reason to question whether the party that relies on them to win elections is fully committed to changing these underlying conditions. You can hear the language of equity and still encounter barriers in education, housing, etc. When voters do not see measurable progress in the conditions shaping their daily lives, space opens for persuasion, misinformation, and disengagement. Some voters look elsewhere to connect with a candidate they feel is meeting them where they are, and others stay home on purpose.
If Democrats want to reverse the erosion we saw in 2024, the answer is not nostalgia for past coalitions. Candidates and elected officials must abandon the idea that any community is guaranteed, because coalitions endure through, listening, negotiation, and follow-through. Democrats must start earning support rather than assuming it, especially from voters who are less engaged, more skeptical, and more likely to tune out politics until their stressors make politics impossible to ignore. They must focus on policy outcomes that reduce daily stress because voters who are stretched thin cannot be reached with symbolism alone. And, they must expand who gets to shape the agenda, who actually influences priorities, investments, and legislative wins.
Black History Month is an appropriate moment to say this plainly: Black political power has never been automatic. It has always been earned, defended, and mobilized against forces that would rather people disengage. Rev. Jackson understood that Black political power had to be organized, negotiated, and sustained through constant engagement. We have to treat that legacy with seriousness, and do the work before 2026 becomes another lesson we didn’t need to learn twice.
Democrats taking Blacks for granted? This group has been impacted by ignorance of facts.
“Ordering flags be flown at half staff for Charlie Kirk but not for Jessie Jackson kinda says it all.”