Beyond that, seats considered long shots at best — in states won by former President Donald J. Trump — were sent to the bottom: Florida and Ohio. Though Ms. Demings and the Democratic nominee in Ohio, Representative Tim Ryan, have run what Washington Democrats acknowledge to be remarkably effective campaigns, they have been left largely to their own devices.
Democrats have spent big to save one deeply endangered Black female incumbent, Representative Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, and to help one Black female candidate contending for an open seat in Ohio, Emilia Sykes.
The House Majority PAC, the outside group tied to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has spent $2.5 million for Ms. Hayes and against her opponent, George S. Logan. Spending for Ms. Sykes and against her opponent, Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, has been even higher, $2.9 million. A much smaller sum, about $200,000, has been spent to lift Jackie Gordon, a Black female Democrat, in a long-shot challenge to Representative Andrew R. Garbarino on Long Island, in New York.
But other Black women in Congress are in safe districts and are not in need of rescuing. Other Black female incumbents, such as Representatives Lauren Underwood of Illinois and Lucy McBath of Georgia, found themselves in newly drawn districts that are now much more Democratic.
It is in Democratic races for the Senate — where only two Black women have served in the nation’s history — that discontent is most prevalent, especially among Black female House members who serve alongside Ms. Demings and saw her prove herself in the impeachments of Mr. Trump.
“There’s much more they can do, and they should do, and they should have done much earlier,” said Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California.
Ms. Lee said Black women had long had higher hurdles to clear before the Democratic Party extended help in campaigns. When she first explored running for the California State Assembly in 1989, she said, party officials told her she had to raise $50,000 in a week to prove her viability. She did, but she faced the same tests when she ran for State Senate, and then for the U.S. House.
