Power Rising Summit draws Kamala Harris and Juliana Stratton to harness the collective power of Black women

A national gathering of Black women that centers collective power and resilience starts today in Chicago. The Power Rising Summit will be held from Friday to Sunday at the Hilton Chicago.

The summit’s founder, Bishop Leah Daughtry, said bringing the summit in its ninth year to Chicago is a nod to “the leadership here that exists in Chicago. Chicago has always been a linchpin for the African-American community nationwide.”

On Friday, the summit features a conversation with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and a panel discussion with attorney and podcast host Angela Rye and political strategist Donna Brazile. Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon, Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, and U.S. Rep. Yvette Clark (D-NY) are among the women on Saturday’s agenda. And the summit will culminate with a Sunday Soul Brunch featuring former Vice President Kamala D. Harris.

Other local speakers include U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.); Jennifer Ballard Croft, general counsel of Resource Innovations, Inc.; Cherita Ellens, president and CEO of Women Employed; Keiana Barrett, CEO of the Business Leadership Council; Tiffany Hightower, CEO of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation; Katrina Jackson; and Watchen Nyanue Hampton, CEO of I Choose the Ladder.

Power Rising is built on five pillars: business and economic empowerment, health and wellness, culture and community, political empowerment, and education and technology. Workshops during the summit will focus on these key issues that may speak to the diversity of interests and needs of attendees.

“We try to speak to the totality of our experience. So some women come and they’re into technology. There's something for them,” Daughtry said. “For some women, they’ve been displaced by the economic times. There’s a workshop for them to talk about how they pivot. Some of us are political animals. Some of us are into the resistance and how do we fight back?”

This year’s summit is co-covened by Daughtry, chairperson of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and Minyon Moore, chairperson of the 2024 DNC, held in Chicago.

On Thursday, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Power Rising launched 1M Black Voters Rising, an initiative to register one million new voters. It’s also an effort to galvanize and activate people, and encourage people to check their voter registration status.

Organizations supporting the initiative include the National Council of Negro Women, Higher Heights for America PAC, Black Womens Roundtable, all four Black Greek-letter sororities of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, and Win with Black Women, the organization that mobilized a call with 44,000 women and raised $1.5 million dollars within hours of Harris’s 2024 presidential run announcement.

Daughtry said 1M Black Voters Rising “will be a way that you will see Black women rowing in the same direction, working together to organize people ahead of the midterms, doing the civic and voter education that needs to happen.”

Historically, Black women voters have been a politically engaged group. Their voter turnout nationally has hovered near and beyond 60% since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. And since 2008, average turnout for Black women is higher than the average turnout for all voters.

The initiative hopes to target younger voters among members of some of the partnering organizations.

Younger generations often express disenchantment with elections, and Daughtry says Gen Z is no different.

“I think every generation has its share of disenchantment. I got X's and Z's disenchanted because our government, quite frankly, hasn't given us much to be enchanted about,” Daughtry said. “The systems haven't worked for us, it seems. And so, people have problems.”

Ten percent of voters in the 2022 midterm elections were 18 to 29 years old, according to the Pew Research Center. In the 2024 elections, 15% of voters were in that age group, but so were 30% of nonvoters — the largest share of nonvoters across all age groups.

Nevertheless, Daughtry said the U.S. is a country that runs on a political system.

“I can’t expect to make change if I’m not going to engage in the system that this country runs on,” she said. “If I buy a car, but I don’t like gas, I’m not going nowhere. The only way that car is running is if I put some gas in the thing. To me, it’s the same thing with elections.”

Daughtry says she understands why Black voters, in particular, may be reluctant to vote, but it's a feeling that should be overcome.

“What’s happened in this country over our existence has given us much to be skeptical about,” Daughtry said. “Each generation has to decide what that looks like for them and how they want to make change.”