Washington ? Black women deserve better representation in Congress and in the political offices of America given the numbers in which they loyally vote for the Democratic Party, black Democratic women said Friday.

“We really are the most powerful voting demographic group in American politics today,” consultant Donna Brazile told the Congressional Black Caucus legislative caucus. “But when it comes to holding elected or appointed positions, black women are always the last to run and the first to lose.”

Only 15 of the 38 members of the Congressional Black Caucus are women, and the Senate has not had a black woman since former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois became the first elected in 1992.

Nationally, there is only one black female statewide elected official, Connecticut state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier, and only 189 black female state legislators, Brazile said.

This comes despite the power black women give to the Democratic Party, said Brazile, the former campaign manager for Democratic presidential challenger Al Gore and current director of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute.

“Since in 1955, we have never broken down below 60 percent” for the Democratic Party, Brazile said. “You can’t say that about white women, you can’t say that about Latino women or Asian-American women. Black women only. That’s political power. White women break evenly and often Republican. Black women never break Republican.”

All members of the Congressional Black Caucus are Democrats. The only black Republican member of Congress, retiring Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, never joined.

“If black women are going to help elect a new Democratic majority in the House and also retain the Senate, then black women should be able to leverage that political power for their own use down the road,” Brazile said.

However, black women find it tough when they run for office, lacking the money, name recognition and institutional support that other candidates get, advocates said.

Despite all that, Braun, who lost her seat in 1998, called on the women at the Washington Convention Center to consider running for office and help those who are already out there.