Carol Moseley Braun has had a storied career spanning more than three decades and six presidents. Most notably, she shot into the cultural zeitgeist in 1993 when she became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Since then, only two other Black women have held that title — the first being current Vice President Kamala Harris, followed by California’s Laphonza Butler, who is currently the only Black woman senator serving.

“Women have not been getting elected to the Senate,” Moseley Braun said. “It’s the highest legislative body we have, and there’s a cultural bias against women making those kinds of decisions.”

Moseley Braun was part of the largest class of women ever elected to the U.S. Senate with a total of eight female senators. She said it’s still her proudest career accomplishment.

“I broke through a barrier that had been there for years because of the people of Illinois,” Moseley Braun said. “I’m very proud of that and grateful for it.”

Moseley Braun has worn many hats in her career, in addition to her stint as a senator. She’s been an ambassador, Cook County recorder of deeds and an Illinois state representative. As of April, she’s the chair of the United States African Development Foundation, where her first priorities are to engage with the agency and make it relevant to the people of the large and diverse continent.

“I was in the United States Senate, and I didn’t even know about it [USADF],” Moseley Braun said, “so what’s the chance that someone who’s just going to pick their kids up from school knows about it? Close to none.”

As the presidential election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump looms closer, there’s a question as to whether the Black voting bloc will turn out for Biden as it did previously. According to the Pew Research Center, 83% of all Black voters are Democrats, and the demographic overwhelmingly showed up for Biden in 2020. But more than half of Black voters recently polled said they would swap out both candidates with different options if they could.

Moseley Braun said energizing Black voters starts with explaining why their vote matters.

“A lot of Black people who I talk to don’t think their vote matters,” Moseley Braun said. “If you talk to the voters about what they care about, then they’ll come to your rescue.”

According to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics, just 5.4% of all voting members identify as Black women while the demographic makes up 7.7% of the total U.S. population.

While there’s still room for improvement, Moseley Braun said there’s been a lot of progress in the realm of diversity since her early days in politics, citing the vice president as a clear example.

“You want to have the best quality candidate of people who can do the job and have a real sense of connectedness to what they’re doing,” Moseley Braun said. “That’s the most important thing, but does race matter? It matters a lot. That has to do with the ability to fundraise, the ability to get the votes out and to overcome biases that are implicit.”