Barack Obama was only the fifth African-American to serve in the US Senate. During Reconstruction, Hiram Rhodes Revels (1870-1871) and Blanche Bruce (1875-1881) helped pave a path for him and other future African-American Presidents. More recently, Edward Brooke (1967-1979) and Carol Moseley Braun (1993-1999) also opened doors for him.

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(Originally posted on The Bilerico Project by Steve Ralls)

If Senator Barack Obama is successful in his bid for the presidency (and no, I'm not saying he's my candidate; he's not), former Senator Carol Moseley Braun should throw her hat in the ring to replace him in the United States Senate.  There has been no finer public servant in American politics for decades, and Braun would bring a much-needed progressive voice back to the halls of Congress.  Few other people can say they took on Jesse Helms and won, and few other people would be a greater champion for LGBT equality.

I still vividly remember watching election returns in 1992 with my mother (I was 16 at the time) and, when hearing that Braun had won her historic campaign for the Senate, immediately said, "She should be president someday." In 2004, when Ambassador Braun announced her campaign for the White House, I wrote my first check to a presidential campaign.  It is a donation I have never regretted, for a candidate who has never let me down.  

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