What a great post election day it is to be Black in America. Not only has the nation endured a tsunami of red states flipping to blue – shoutout to Texas and South Carolina – we have also had a record breaking midterm election turnout across the country. Taking things up several notches, we’ve also watched two of the most recognizable young faces of Black activism, Yolanda Renee King and Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny, better known as Little Miss Flint, come of age at the ballot box.
In Atlanta, Yolanda walked into Trinity Presbyterian Church beside her parents, Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King, and cast her first ballot as the 18-year-old granddaughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Her grandparents devoted their lives to ensuring Black Americans could vote without fear. Seeing their only grandchild exercise that right is a full-circle moment, and a reminder that it was hard-won and never guaranteed. Yolanda has carried the torch publicly since childhood, addressing the 2018 March for Our Lives at nine and the March On for Voting Rights at 13. Now she is casting the vote herself.
Mari carries a legacy of her own. At eight, she wrote to President Obama about the Flint water crisis. The letter brought him to Flint and helped secure $100 million for the city. Now 19, she has spent well over half her life as an activist, leading long before she was old enough to vote.
They were far from alone. An estimated 8 million Americans were eligible to vote for the first time in this election. And they showed up. In the preliminary NBC News Exit Poll, voters ages 18 to 29 backed Democratic House candidates 72% to 25%, a sharp rise from the 54% to 43% Democratic edge among that age group in 2024.
The payoff was immediate and historic. Democrats flipped Senate seats in Republican strongholds including Texas and South Carolina, where Annie Andrews became the first Democrat to win a Senate race since 1998. In Yolanda’s home state of Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in the U.S. and flipped the governor’s office for the first time in 24 years. Democrats swept back into power in both chambers of Congress.
For first-time voters, that is a powerful lesson to learn the very first time out. Your presence is not symbolic. It moves maps, changes outcomes, and honors the people who marched so you could stand in that line. To Mari, Yolanda, and every young voter who mobilized and exercised their right: we are proud of you. We hope you never forget the power you carry. No matter what generation you come from, your vote matters, so keep showing up.