Natural-Hair Moments in Politics

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Keli Goff is The Root’s special correspondent. Follow her on Twitter

New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's son, Dante, and his Afro have generated a great deal of attention and media coverage. Here is a look at some other natural-hair superstars in politics.

Annette Robinson

Robinson is a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly.

Karen Bass

A former majority floor leader for the California State Assembly, Democratic Rep. Bass was elected to Congress in 2010.

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Angela Davis

Davis is likely as well known for her political activism as for her sizable Afro, which emerged as an iconic cultural and fashion image of the 1960s.

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Ruth Hassell-Thompson

Hassell-Thompson is a Democratic member of the New York State Senate.

Donna Edwards

In 2006 Rep. Edwards (D-Md.) defeated longtime Democratic incumbent Rep. Al Wynn to become the first black woman to represent Maryland in Congress.

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Shirley Kitchen

Kitchen is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate.

Donna Christian-Christensen

A physician and a native of New Jersey, Democrat Christian-Christensen was elected to the House of Representatives as the delegate for the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1996. (As a delegate, Christian-Christensen has representative but nonvoting power.)

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LeAnna M. Washington

Washington is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate.

Daun Sessoms Hester

Democrat Hester is a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

Lena C. Taylor

Wisconsin state Sen. Taylor, a Democrat, has worn her hair natural during her political career.

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Shirley Franklin

Franklin became the first female mayor of Atlanta in 2002, as well as the first black female mayor of a major Southern city.

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Nikiya Harris

Wisconsin Democratic state Sen. Harris has been spotted on the campaign trail rocking a natural style.

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Eleanor Holmes Norton

During her tenure as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the late 1970s, Norton sported a sizable Afro. Today the delegate elected to represent the District of Columbia in Congress in 1990 wears her hair in a more close-cropped natural style.

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