The Alabama election is the latest example of the political power of black women

Black women didn’t vote to “save” Alabama last night. They voted to protect themselves. 

When Democrat Doug Jones won Alabama’s hotly contested Senate special election on Tuesday night, observers on Twitter were quick to point one thing out: Jones’s victory was most likely due to high black turnout, particularly among black women.

Despite fears of the reduced turnout often seen in an off-cycle elections, belief that the Jones campaign made missteps in its black outreach, and concerns that voter suppression tactics in the state could reduce the number of black voters able to cast ballots, black voters made a commanding display of political power on Tuesday night, according to preliminary exit polls. In a state where African Americans usually make up one-fourth of the electorate, the initial exit polls suggested that they exceeded that turnout rate, with early numbers putting them at 30 percent of Tuesday’s electorate.

The numbers will be in flux for a while, as Dara Lind writes for Vox, but an exit poll from CNN found that 96 percent of black voters went for Jones in the election. And a demographic breakdown of exit polls published by the Washington Post went viral on Twitter, showing that black women, an estimated 17 percent of the Tuesday night electorate, supported Jones by a 98-2 margin.

Observers noted that the result was a powerful reminder of the power of black women’s votes. The results also come months after the Democratic Party engaged in a highly public debate about the significance of “identity politics,” with some arguing that the party was taking black women for granted as it pursued the votes of working-class white voters.

On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, noted that the election was further evidence of black women being “the backbone of the Democratic Party.”

Alabama’s Senate race isn’t the first election this year where a strong turnout among black voters, led by black women, helped determine an election. In a performance that closely matched their 2013 behavior in the state, black women in Virginia helped keep the governor’s mansion in Democratic hands, with 91 percent of their vote going to Ralph Northam last month. They also showed the strongest support for the winning Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey. And while Hillary Clinton did not win the 2016 election, black women overwhelmingly supported her, backing her by a 94-6 margin over Donald Trump.

On social media last night, some observers noted that black women were voting for Doug Jones in an effort to “save America,” which some critics argued puts too much of a burden on black women.

But in a state where a disproportionate level of African-Americans face rampant poverty, poor education systems, and unequal access to healthcare, the votes of black women weren’t about some altruistic mission to save America from itself. Their votes were a very real attempt to make a change that would help themselves and their families.

They were also counteracting a candidate who argued that America was last “great” when slavery was in place, responded affirmatively when asked if constitutional amendments after the 10th should be abolished, and was backed by a president who has engaged in vitriolic attacks against prominent black women while pursuing legislation that would harm them. The results outline why they were such a powerful political force that should be focused on beyond election season.

Alabama’s Senate race is only the latest election in which black women made the difference. If their high levels of turnout remain surprising, it’s because we aren’t looking to them in the first place.