VIDEO: PA candidate running to be first black female GOP senator

  |  
Apr 6, 2021

Former congressional candidate and conservative commentator Kathy Barnette has jumped into Pennsylvania‘s 2022 U.S. Senate election, hoping to become the first black female Republican senator.

In a campaign announcement video posted to her Twitter on Tuesday, she can be seen walking in the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg and talking about what that place means to her. In the video, Barnette—who, according to her website, served for 10 years in the Armed Forces Reserves—also took swipes at President Joe Biden and “cancel culture”.

While noting in the video the progress that have been made for Black Americans in this country, Barnette said, “But there are still deeply personal and demeaning hurdles we must overcome, because now the issue isn’t just for someone who looks like me, but it is for people who think like me as well.”

“People like me are being canceled, bullied, fired, threatened, and deplatformed,” she continued, adding: “We’re told that Black lives matter—except, of course, my Black life because I’m a Black conservative.”

“And by the way, Joe, just because I believe in competent leadership doesn’t mean ‘I ain’t Black!’,” she wrote on Twitter, referencing the president’s infamous comment from the 2020 campaign trail that if Black voters don’t vote for him, then they “ain’t Black”.

Barnette was previously the GOP’s 2020 nominee for Pennsylvania’s fourth congressional district, but lost.

Currently, there is only one Black GOP senator: South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Notably, Scott recently defended his comments that “woke supremacy” is worse than white supremacy and said “I am proud to be both a Black man and a Republican” when discussing those who have attacked him for being both.

RELATED: ‘Proud to be’ Black and Republican: Tim Scott defends ‘woke supremacy’ remarks

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @DouglasPBraff.