Kathy Barnette Is Fighting To Become The First Black Female Republican U.S. Senator

kathy barnette senate

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the correct number of black senators.

In the entire 232-year history of the United States Senate, only 11 black Americans have served in that body, with two of them being women. None of them have been Republican women.

Kathy Barnette is a black Republican woman from Pennsylvania who is running for U.S. Senate, who made waves this week with a strong message for President Joe Biden.

Watch her announcement video:

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“I’m Kathy Barnette, and I’m running to become the first Black Republican [w]oman elected to the US Senate,” she tweeted on Wednesday. “I’ll be the voice we need to defend our rights.”

Then she added, “And by the way, Joe, just because I believe in competent leadership doesn’t mean ‘I ain’t Black!'”

Barnette was referring to a controversial comment Biden made in May during the presidential campaign, in which he told radio host Charlamagne tha God that, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

Needless to say, the backlash was harsh and endless. 

But proving Biden wrong is something Barnette obviously intends to do.

The campaign video she included in her tweet is a three minute broadside against the president and condemnation of Biden for attempting to take away the “blackness” of African-American conservatives like Barnette.

According to her campaign website, 49-year-old Barnette is a veteran, a former adjunct professor of corporate finance and author of the book, “Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: Being Black and Conservative in America.” 

Barnette spoke with The Political Insider on Friday, where she explained what makes her campaign so unique and why she is convinced she can become Pennsylvania’s next U.S. Senator.

Barnette Talks To The Political Insider

By way of introduction, Barnette told our host Brett R. Smith that the tone of her video was very intentional.

“From the moment I sat down with pen and paper in hand, and started writing what I wanted my message to be to the American people… this message of recognizing this cancel culture. Recognizing that everywhere we turn, people are talking about the color of my skin. 

Prior to running for Congress last year, I never talked about the color of my skin so much until I decided to run for office. And I’ve been black all my life! And I never talked about the color of my skin as much as until I jumped into the political fray.”

Barnette made the point that normal people, who are just living their everyday lives and paying their bills, don’t walk around telling each other, “Oh, you’re black. Oh, you’re white.”

“It’s these ‘thought leaders’ who do such a thing, in their effort to control the people.” 

In other words, people like Joe Biden, who thinks he gets to decide who is and who isn’t black.

We covered other topics of national importance.

Barnette is not impressed with Republican leadership, whom she says still think of our time as “politics as usual.”

“Democrats know we’re in a battle, but I don’t think we’ve landed one punch… But we are in a battle right now. These people (Democrats) are not playing with us.”

Ultimately, Barnette says the biggest question in the battle is who we are as a nation.

She wants to help define just who that is. 

Check out the interview and let us know what you think! Is Kathy Barnette the fighter the GOP needs in the Senate?

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is a professional writer and editor with over 15 years of experience in conservative media and Republican politics. He... More about John Hanson

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