Carol Moseley Braun

U.S. Senator Moseley Braun

In 1992, angered by incumbent Democratic senator Alan Dixon's vote to confirm Clarence Thomas, Moseley Braun challenged Dixon in the primary election for U.S. Senate. She was backed by the political coalition from the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago that had previously backed the campaigns of Harold Washington and Jesse Jackson.[13] Democratic candidate Albert Hofeld's campaign ran many anti-Dixon ads, and Moseley Braun won the Democratic primary.[14] On November 3, 1992, Moseley Braun became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Senate,[10] defeating Republican Richard S. Williamson.[15] Her election marked the first time Illinois had elected a woman to the U.S. Senate and the first time an African American was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.[16]

Moseley Braun was a one-term Senator, losing to Republican Peter Fitzgerald in her re-election bid in 1998.[17]

Female Senators of the Democratic Party, 1993. Top Row (L-R): Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Bottom Row: Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Moseley Braun is the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.[18][19] Along with Republican Edward Brooke, she was one of two African Americans to serve in the Senate in the 20th century. Moseley Braun was the sole African American in the Senate during her tenure.[19] She was also the first woman to serve on the Senate Finance Committee.[20]

Despite her reputation as a liberal Democrat, Moseley Braun possessed something of a centrist record on economic issues. She voted for the 1993 budget package and against the welfare reform laws passed in 1996, but on many other matters she was more conservative. Moseley Braun voted in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and lawsuit reform measures like the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (she was also among the minority of Democrats to support the even more controversial Common Sense Product Liability and Legal Reform Act of 1995). She also voted contrary to the interests of the more populist wing of the party by voting for the Freedom to Farm Act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Like her Illinois colleague, fellow Democrat Paul Simon, she voted in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution. Moseley Braun also voted to place a nuclear spent fuel storage facility in Nevada; this move was strongly opposed by many Democrats, especially Majority Leader Harry Reid.

On social issues, however, Moseley Braun was significantly more liberal than many of her fellow senators. She was strongly pro-choice, voting against the ban on partial-birth abortions and the restrictions on funding in military bases for abortions. She also voted against the death penalty and in favor of gun control measures. Moseley Braun was one of only sixteen senators to vote against the Communications Decency Act and one of only fourteen to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. She delivered a eulogy for Thurgood Marshall on January 26, 1993.

Moseley Braun was the subject of a 1993 Federal Election Commission investigation over $249,000 in unaccounted-for campaign funds. The agency found some small violations, but took no action against Moseley Braun, citing a lack of resources. Moseley Braun only admitted to bookkeeping errors. The Justice Department turned down two requests for investigations from the IRS.[21]

Women were not allowed to wear pants on the U.S. Senate floor until 1993.[22][23] In 1993, Senators Moseley Braun and Barbara Mikulski wore pants onto the floor in defiance of the rule. Soon after, female support staff followed their example. Later that year, the rule was amended by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Martha Pope to allow women to wear pants on the floor so long as they also wore jackets.[22][23]

In 1993, Moseley Braun made headlines when she convinced the Senate Judiciary Committee not to renew a design patent for the United Daughters of the Confederacy because it contained the Confederate flag. The patent had been routinely renewed for nearly a century, and despite the Judiciary Committee's disapproval, the Senate was poised to pass a resolution sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina that included a provision to authorize the extension of the federal patent. Moseley Braun threatened to filibuster the legislation "until this room freezes over." She also made a plea to her colleagues about the symbolism of the Confederate flag, declaring, "It has no place in our modern times, place in this body, place in our society".[24] Swayed by Moseley Braun's argument, the Senate rejected the UDC's application to renew its patent.[25][26]

In 1996, Moseley Braun made a private trip to Nigeria, where she met with dictator Sani Abacha. Despite U.S. sanctions against that country due to Abacha's actions, the Senator neither notified nor registered her trip with the State Department. She subsequently defended Abacha's human rights record in Congress.[27] Her former fiancé Kgosie Matthews, who also served on her campaign staff in violation of U.S. immigration regulations[28], had been a lobbyist for the Nigerian government; Matthews would later leave the country. She paid Matthews, a native of South Africa, a salary of $15,000 a month during the campaign.[29]

In 1998, after George Will wrote a column reviewing the allegations of corruption against her,[30] Moseley Braun responded to Will's comments, saying that "I think because he couldn't say nigger, he said corrupt".[31] She also compared Will to a Ku Klux Klansman, saying: "I mean this very sincerely from the bottom of my heart: He can take his hood and put it back on again, as far as I'm concerned".[32] Later, Moseley Braun apologized for her remarks.[31]

Braun campaigning in Iowa

Moseley Braun announced her intention to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in February 2003. On January 15, 2004, two days after a disappointing third place showing in the D.C. primary[38] and four days before the Iowa caucuses, Moseley Braun dropped out of the race and endorsed Howard Dean.[39]

Sign for Moseley Braun's mayoral campaign

In November 2010, after Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley announced that he would not seek re-election, Moseley Braun announced she would run for mayor of Chicago in 2011.[40] In early 2011, two potentially strong African-American candidates--U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and State Sen. James Meeks--left the race and endorsed Moseley Braun, making her the so-called consensus black candidate.[41][42][43]

Moseley Braun had several difficulties with her candidacy, including a lack of funding.[44] She raised approximately $550,000, while Rahm Emanuel raised over $12 million.[44] Only a few of the city's African-American business leaders (including Elzie Higginbottom and John W. Rogers Jr.) contributed to her campaign.[44] There was also internal conflict within her campaign organization.[44]

In a debate on January 30, 2011, Moseley Braun accused another candidate, Patricia Van-Pelt Watkins, of "being strung out on crack" for 20 years.[45] Van-Pelt Watkins had once been addicted to cocaine, but had been clean for 30 years.[44] This attack on Van-Pelt Watkins backfired and was detrimental to Moseley Braun's own candidacy.[44]

On February 22, 2011, Moseley Braun came in fourth in the field of six, receiving about nine percent of the vote. In her concession speech, she remarked that her young niece could become the first female mayor of Chicago,[46] neglecting to mention Jane Byrne, Chicago's first female mayor, who served from 1979 to 1983.[47]

In the 2016 Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Maryland, Moseley Braun endorsed Donna Edwards.[48][49]

In the 2019 Chicago mayoral election runoff, Moseley Braun endorsed Toni Preckwinkle.[50]

In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Moseley Braun endorsed Joe Biden.[51]