Former aides to members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday launched the first-ever super PAC affiliated with the caucus’s political action committee, adding a powerful new player to the stable of Democratic groups with plans to spend big in the 2024 election.
The Rolling Sea Action Fund, so named for lyrics in the Black national anthem, intends to spend upwards of $10 million on TV and digital advertisements, field organizing and other forms of engagement directed at Black voters in an effort to help Democrats retake the House of Representatives. The group will focus its resources on swing seats where Black voters make up 8% of the electorate or more and thus where their turnout plays a pivotal role in deciding election outcomes.
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“There is no really centralized, organized effort devoted to working year-round to empower and mobilize Black voters in America,” said Niccara Campbell-Wallace, former political director of the CBC PAC, who will lead the new super PAC. “We need to make sure that we’re engaging Black voters, making sure they know their rights when it comes to voting, and protecting democracy ― and more importantly, take back the House.”
The Rolling Sea Action Fund is also committed to defending members of the Congressional Black Caucus in safe seats who face primary challenges, according to Campbell-Wallace.
Regaining control of the House has extra resonance this cycle for the caucus, which currently has only Black Democratic lawmakers as members. Should Democrats retake the House, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a longstanding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, would become the first Black speaker of the House in history.
Provided that they do not coordinate directly with candidates and campaigns, super PACs are free to raise and spend unlimited sums in elections. The Rolling Sea Action Fund’s efforts would complement the work of the House Majority PAC, or HMP, which is House Democrats’ main super PAC. Unlike HMP, however, the Rolling Sea Action Fund would focus exclusively on mobilizing Black voters.
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Rather than emerging out of a specific concern about a lack of Black voter engagement, Campbell-Wallace told HuffPost that the new group seeks to expand on existing efforts and create an organization that can serve as a “permanent fixture” for Black outreach within the Democratic Party ecosystem.
“With this always-on engagement strategy, we’re recognizing and applauding and making sure we’re going to the folks who, time and time again, turn out for Democrats and making sure we’re listening to them ― going to the community, being on the ground, really being a listening ear, versus telling people how to live their lives in their own communities,” Campbell-Wallace said.
Leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus have in the past lamented what they see as the national Democratic Party taking Black voters, who make up the party’s most reliable voting bloc, for granted. Ahead of the 2020 election, for example, several Black lawmakers lamented the dearth of Black staff members in leadership positions at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Their advocacy, in conjunction with Latino lawmakers, contributed to major personnel changes at the DCCC and the diversification of vendors given Democratic Party contracts.
This cycle, some Black activists and voters have voiced their frustration with President Joe Biden’s lack of progress on what they see as key priorities for the Black community. With a slim majority in the Senate, Biden failed to pass voting rights legislation or a criminal-justice reform bill, and his bid to provide far-reaching student debt relief was struck down in court.
Campbell-Wallace acknowledged some Black voters’ disappointment with Biden on those fronts, even as she laid much of the blame at the feet of Republicans for obstructing the president’s efforts and passing “crazy” laws restricting voting at the state level.
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“It is tiring. It is frustrating when you keep trying and keep trying,” she said. “I’m tired sometimes. But we really just have to push it.”
To fire up Black voters ― and all voters ― Campbell-Wallace argued, Democrats need to do a better job promoting what they achieved under unified party control in 2021 and 2022. Among the accomplishments she hopes to tout: passing an infrastructure bill, capping insulin costs for seniors, presiding over an economy with historically low unemployment and standing up to a conservative Supreme Court that is “trying to really turn back the clock of all the progress we’ve made in this country.”
“We are really doing things for working-class people. We are the working-class people party,” Campbell-Wallace said. “And so we just have to sell our good news and scream it from the mountaintops.
“Sometimes we can be a little bit bashful. We need to stop being so bashful. Maybe we do need to be a bit braggadocious.”
