Yes, DEI is coming back. It may come back under a new name, but it will come back because it’s the only way any company, school or political party can survive. The common denominator in these institutions? They are all built upon people – and the people of this country are broadly diverse.
We have made our terms clear. You can’t ignore us and expect our loyalty. You can’t marginalize us and expect our votes. You can’t send us into workplaces and classrooms where we’re harassed and disrespected, with no protections and no one to turn to. And you can’t lock us out of the jobs and educational opportunities necessary to build a life, then wonder why we abandoned you. We won’t accept it. The 2026 midterms just proved it.
For two years, the Republican Party governed for a long-shrinking slice of America: older, white, straight and wealthy. Everyone else (who, by the way, comprises the majority of our country) was treated as second-class citizens and less “American.”
The Justice Department’s Voting Rights Section staff was cut to three attorneys. Federal DEI offices were shut down. The SBA 8(a) program that helped Black businesses win federal contracts was gutted. ICE raided worksites and Home Depot parking lots. Many states redrew district maps to dilute Black votes.
Then voters answered in the midterms. LOUDLY. Democrats won control of the House and the Senate. An NBC News exit poll found that 90% of Black voters backed Democrats.
Diversity won at every level. Keisha Lance Bottoms’ great-great-grandfather, Shepherd Peek, was enslaved. Now she is the first Black woman elected governor in American history. In Alabama, Rep. Shomari Figures won reelection after the state redrew his district and cut its share of Black voting-age residents from 48% to 40%. Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Ethiopian-born first-time candidate, became Colorado’s first Black congresswoman. With Juliana Stratton’s win, three Black women will serve in the U.S. Senate at the same time for the first time. And these examples are just a portion of a broader diversity roll call: the first Muslim U.S. Senator; the first Native woman Governor; the first Native woman U.S. Senator; the first Latino and first Latina Governors; and on and on.
For 25 years, I was president of a company that designed and implemented DEI programs for organizations across the country. The lesson never changed: when you exclude people, you lose their talent, their loyalty, and their dollars. In politics, you lose their votes. That isn’t ideology. It’s math. America gets more diverse every year, and no entity can win long-term by diminishing that diverse population and serving a shrinking white, privileged minority.
Call it DEI. Call it belonging, opportunity or fairness. Call it whatever you want. The name may change, but the need won’t. Any entity that wants to survive in America must make room for all of America. The voters just showed the Republican Party what happens when you don’t.
Randi Bryant is the president of Bryant Consulting Group and the creator of Truthing with Randi B.
