With Sen. Kamala Harris' exit, Democrats can't avoid a tough conversation about diversity

[Auburn85 432]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/sen-kamala-harris-exit-democrats-can-t-avoid-tough-conversation-n1095196

 

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When Sen. Kamala Harris called off her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday, she was the top-ranked nonwhite candidate in the race.

Her departure left Democrats — the nation’s most diverse political party — facing the prospect of a December debate stage filled with only white candidates, one of them a self-financed billionaire. (Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who represents a district in Hawaii, and businessman Andrew Yang stand close to qualifying. Two other candidates of color, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Julián Castro, remain in the race but are unlikely to appear in the debate.)

 

The reasons for the collapse of Harris’ campaign are many: She was less than sure-footed when describing her policy positions, seemed torn between the moderate and progressive wings of the party and struggled to effectively fundraise, strategize or resolve internal strife in her campaign.

Still, she represented the hopes of many who wanted to see a more diverse field of candidates this presidential election, and her exit leaves the Democratic Party with a striking demographic problem.

There are no black women left in a primary race controlled by a party that has relied on black women as a critical voting bloc, particularly in recent election cycles. Out of a massive Democratic presidential field, the four people considered front-runners are white. Three are male and all but one are 70 or over.

“The front-runner list is very white and very male and very senior,” said Lara Brown, director of the graduate school of political management at George Washington University. “With Harris gone, the only black woman in the race, there is no way, just no way to avoid this conversation about race and representation, about equity. I don’t think the front-runners of the Democratic Party will be able to just dodge the conversation.”

After Harris’s decision became public, She the People, a political organization dedicated to amplifying the voice and influence of women of color in American politics, praised Harris and criticized the American political system.

“The Democratic field became much less diverse today,” Aimee Allison, who founded She the People, said in a statement. “I had hoped that she would be able to recapture some of that early excitement. As a black woman, I know from personal experience that Kamala has to work three times as hard as some of the other candidates in this race to get half as far.”

Harris is not the first black woman to seek the White House. In 1972, Shirley Chisholm became the first black candidate for a major party’s presidential nomination, the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nod and the first woman to appear in an American presidential debate. Chisholm, from New York, was already the first black woman elected to Congress.

But while Chisholm’s presidential campaign was always understood as a long shot, an outsider’s bid for the ultimate insider’s job, Harris entered the race with the kind of credentials that prompted many political prognosticators to consider her a top-tier candidate. Harris had been a prosecutor in a major city, and the attorney general of one of the country’s largest states, as well as the first black woman to hold both roles. Then she won a U.S. Senate seat and built a fundraising network and a bank of political supporters that many presumed would eventually include a former president. Had Harris made it through the primary, some of those résumé features might have helped her excite and engage black voters and women of all races, Brown said.

Harris' very presence in the race was often described as a kind of testament to the nature of 21st-century America and the modern Democratic Party, one where black voters are a recognized and significant voting bloc, with black women the central component.

Harris’ campaign was imperfect, but it was also very likely hampered by the ways that sexism and racism shape American politics, said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University who studies black political behavior.

“It’s the same as the Clinton campaign in 2016,” Gillespie said. “We can’t say there was not sexism but, also, she should have campaigned in Michigan.”

Among the issues Harris faced: difficulty securing widespread support from black voters who historically have sought to support the least offensive candidate who is most likely to win. Black voters have largely backed former Vice President Joe Biden, the best known of the candidates in the race.

At the same time, Harris came across as unsure and unprepared at key moments in the race, such as just after her debate-stage tangle with Biden over busing to integrate public schools, Brown said. But like other women in the race, she also faced more questions about the details of her policy positions than male candidates have, Brown said.

Now, Harris is in the odd position of withdrawing from the race when other candidates who poll even lower than she did remain.

Her absence raises both immediate and long-term questions for candidates, voters and the Democratic Party, Gillespie said. Other candidates will vie for her voters, but they may not immediately seek her endorsement, since she was faring so poorly in the race before her departure. There may also be increased pressure on bottom-tier candidates to withdraw and consolidate the race, Gillespie said.

Then, there is the potential impact on Biden. Many of Biden’s debate stage gaffes — the busing discussion in the first debate and his failure in the November debate to remember Harris’ existence when he said he had the support of the only black woman to serve in the Senate, referring to former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun — were in some way connected to Harris. So, her departure could benefit him.

“I am wondering how gaffe-prone he will be or appear with her off the stage,” Gillespie said.

In the final seconds of a video message dispatched by the Harris campaign on Twitter, Harris said the end of her campaign need not extinguish the fight for key issues that many political observers had described as difficult to discern while the campaign remained operative.

“Let’s keep fighting for the America we believe in,” she said, “an America free of injustice, an America we know can be unburdened by what has been."

 

 

[AU64 10,122]

On 12/4/2019 at 7:10 PM, Auburn85 said:

After Harris’s decision became public, She the People, a political organization dedicated to amplifying the voice and influence of women of color in American politics, praised Harris and criticized the American political system.

Should have been criticizing the democrat party hierarchy perhaps.....or just democrat voters in general,   probably half of which are minorities or one type or another and yet look at the candidates.    A couple ancient white guys,  a phony native American, a phony Latino and KH plus a string of pretenders who can't get above 5%.   

JMO but the "System" should be praised for making it possible for someone like KH with no public support to raise money and run for President.   Seems its her fellow democrats who found her lacking.    

[DKW 86 7,437]

This was not a general election. It was strictly Dem Primary voters. I really don’t see this as applying to the general population and see as how this busy GEA second time for a similar story it is getting clear that someone is trying to drive a narrative on this. 
 

This was just Dem Primary voters. It is almost funny how no one wants to define the polling correctly anymore.

[Auburn85 432]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/castro-democratic-primary-093079

 

 

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Castro allies lash out after his exit

Julián Castro launched his long-shot bid nearly a year ago in his native San Antonio, hoping to excite a diverse coalition of voters who could power him to the White House.

When he bowed out of the race Thursday, his allies expressed frustration that he was prevented from doing so, casting him as a victim of a primary process that inhibits candidates of color. In interviews, a half-dozen former aides and allies cast the first major Latino candidate in the 2020 race as a casualty of a system that already felled California Sen. Kamala Harris and is keeping New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker from gaining traction.

“How you fare in Iowa and New Hampshire sets the tone for how your campaign continues, and when you have these two states that in no way represent the diversity of the Democratic Party, it makes it very difficult for minority candidates to get momentum,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, who noted the impact a campaign’s momentum — or lack thereof — has on fundraising, polling and media coverage.

 

 

“If you’ve got people like Booker and Kamala Harris and Castro campaigning in places like Texas, California and South Carolina early on, they’re gonna get momentum,” he argued. “They’re gonna get well known. They’re gonna start raising money. These were high-quality candidates and people who have credentials, who have a history of public service, who are smart, who have ideas and who I think represent where we’re at as a party on the issues important to Americans.”

With some two dozen candidates all vying for the Democratic nomination and party rules that emphasized national and early-state polling and grassroots fundraising to determine who could qualify for the sanctioned debates, Castro’s campaign had an uphill climb, some argued.

Black voters cast a majority of the Democratic primary vote in South Carolina and Hispanic or Latino voters make up a third of the population in Nevada. But the other two early states are overwhelmingly white.

Struggling to keep pace with his rivals in fundraising, Castro lacked the infrastructure and resources of the other Texan in the race, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who ended his campaign in November.

Castro saw his only polling bump when the two Texans clashed over immigration policy at the first debate in June, hitting 4 percent in an ABC News/Washington Post survey days later. In every other approved national and early-state poll released in 2019, however, Castro sat at 2 percent or less.

He cast himself as a voice for marginalized communities, releasing detailed policies on immigration, policing, lead exposure, indigenous communities, people with disabilities and animals while also meeting with inmates and touring a Las Vegas flood tunnel where homeless people seek shelter.

 

“Some of the people we targeted are people who literally don’t ever vote and could never get included in the political process, people like homeless people,” said a former aide who was laid off when the campaign shuttered its staff in New Hampshire and South Carolina to prioritize Iowa and Nevada.

“It’s tough because in places like Nevada, they rarely poll,” the ex-aide added. “The other issue is polling has always historically underpolled people of color and poor people, people who don’t have landlines. So when you make that system, so when the DNC basically says, ‘Oh, all right, this is how people are gonna qualify,’ you’re setting people up for failure.”

Mayra Macías, executive director of Latino Victory Fund, a progressive PAC that seeks to increase Latino political power and that endorsed Castro in August, said in her experience dealing with media, Castro’s candidacy was often written off. In her estimation, Castro fell victim to an electability argument that rewarded poll leaders in Iowa and New Hampshire with even higher polling and additional media coverage.

Castro never got significant media attention or polled above 2 percent in the first two early states.

“The bulk of the interviews that we’ve had have felt like almost a moratorium since Day One — folks bringing up a million and one reasons why his campaign wasn’t gonna be viable,” Macías lamented. “The mainstream coverage — or lack thereof — that his campaign received was a big factor, particularly because the campaign doesn’t have the resources as other campaigns do to get their message out there to the American people, so a lot of the campaign’s ability to reach out to folks really did depend on this earned media.”

Colin Strother, a Texas Democratic strategist who once advised Castro, said the system seems like it was “engineered” to make the primary a three-person race between the “three white septuagenarians” in former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont while preventing diverse candidates like Castro, Harris and Booker from reaching the goal line.

But Castro’s staff is also responsible for his demise, Strother said, blaming the candidate’s senior team for robbing their candidate of the opportunity “to get to Super Tuesday, when brown people and black people are finally gonna get a chance to vote.”

“They knew what the process was. At the end of the day, you’ve got to have a strategy to give your candidate a shot, and Julián’s staff didn’t,” he said. “They were spending money they shouldn’t have spent and pushing a strategy that they had to have a reasonable assumption wasn’t gonna work.”

Castro’s first campaign stop was Puerto Rico, instead of Iowa or New Hampshire, the traditional early states. And two days after the DNC announced its polling thresholds for the first two debates — thresholds that hinged on performance in the four early states — Castro’s campaign announced a 50-state tour.

The ploy may have been a creative effort to help him clinch 65,000 unique donors since 200 of them each needed to come from at least 20 different states. But the time and resources spent on trips to states like Idaho and Utah could have been used to campaign or advertise in Iowa, Nevada or Super Tuesday states.

After spending more than half a million dollars more than it raised in the third quarter, the campaign entered October with less than $700,000 cash on hand. Later that month, Castro warned his supporters that his campaign needed $800,000 to stay alive in the next 10 days to stay alive, emulating a strategy that helped extend the life of Booker’s campaign.

Castro met the self-imposed deadline, but still lacked the resources to sustain an ad campaign that could boost his polling enough to qualify for upcoming debates. He missed the last two in November and December, and the party rejected campaigns’ plea to allow more candidates to debate later this month.

When he was on the debate stage, Castro held his own, winning plaudits on the left for endorsing decriminalizing illegal border crossings, naming Atatiana Jefferson, a black woman who was shot and killed by a police officer in Texas, and mentioning transgender people when talking about abortion access.

“It’s a strong symbol when somebody can literally change the narrative on a few issues and not have the polling numbers but still the candidates on the stage also go toward that policy,” said another former aide who worked under Castro at HUD. “He pushed the envelope further than black and brown people have seen in a while.”

Castro acknowledged Thursday morning “that it simply isn’t our time” but also signaled that he isn’t leaving the political arena.

Allies say he belongs in the conversation for vice president, highlighting him as a young, progressive minority with executive experience who became mayor of a major city and ran a Cabinet department in the Obama administration.

They note he would be a valuable asset to any Democratic ticket and could see him serving in a Cabinet position under a Democratic administration, running for governor of Texas in 2022 or possibly even president again in 2024 if Donald Trump is reelected.

“I’m not afraid to admit that on more than one occasion I’ve asked each and both of those brothers to run for governor,” said Hinojosa, the Texas state party chairman, alluding to Julián and his twin brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro.

But some Democrats warn that challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is a fool’s errand because the state isn’t ready to put a Democrat in the governor’s mansion.

“He wasn’t really getting a lot of traction in Texas,” noted the aide who worked under Castro at HUD. “That’s a good symbol or sign that if you can’t even carry your own territory, how do you push against that narrative, that you’re strong enough or a viable candidate?”

Strother, the Democratic strategist, added that even after O’Rourke dropped out of the presidential race, the Texas Democratic community of donors, activists and elected officials didn’t coalesce behind Castro.

“If he couldn’t count on them in the biggest election of most of our lifetimes and in probably the modern history of the world, then I don’t think that he should expect that they’ll be there for him in a governor’s race,” Strother said, noting Abbott’s popularity and fundraising prowess.

In recent weeks, Castro had begun arguing for a greater focus on diversity on the front end of the primary calendar so that more people of color have more of a say in who ultimately becomes the nominee. No candidates of color this cycle have led polling in any of the four early states.

“A lot of people will point out and say, ‘Oh, but Barack Obama.’ Barack Obama is from Illinois, which is a bordering state to Iowa,” said the former aide who was downsized. “People in bordering states tend to do well, especially when you start sending volunteers. Right over the border isn’t that far. You talk about one exclusion, one exception. That’s not the rule. We have a lot of work to do as a Democratic Party to uplift our candidates [of color].”

Hinojosa, himself a Democratic Party leader, expressed frustration that the party’s system allowed a now-former mayor in Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., to become a front-runner at the expense of more qualified candidates of color.

“I don’t want to put down Pete Buttigieg, but give me a break. This guy never got more than 8,000 votes in any election,” Hinojosa said. “He’s a front-runner in Iowa versus these three other individuals? What the hell does that tell you?”

 

 

[Auburn85 432]

https://www.mediaite.com/news/neera-tanden-says-democrats-think-the-country-is-racist-and-sexist-because-trump-was-elected/

 

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Neera Tanden Says ‘Democrats Think the Country is Racist and Sexist’ Because Trump Was Elected

 

Former Clinton advisor Neera Tanden said that one reason white men are leading the Democratic field is that “Democrats think the country is racist and sexist” because President Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

Tanden was part of a panel on Thursday night’s edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes discussing recent fundraising totals and polling, and the departure of former HUD Secretary Julian Castro from the race.

Indivisible’s Maria Urbina said she appreciated Secretary Castro for pointing out “the way in which these primaries are set up to over-index white voters, and perhaps dim the light on the prominence that voters of color should have,” and added that popular political analysis is lacking when it comes to “people of color, their candidate preferences and their underrepresentation in traditional polling and how it informs a lot of these fundraising totals.”

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just released a massive fourth quarterfundraising tally of $34.5 million, followed by Mayor Pete Buttigieg at $24.7 million and former Vice President Joe Biden at $22.7 mil. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was fourth with $21.2 million after a strong finish that saw her raise over $4 million in three days.

Host Chris Hayes said there seems to be a sense of “dread” and a “palpable… defensive crouch” among some Democratic voters who “feel like Trump won the first time.”

Hayes cited a response by Biden to a voter who asked how he would fare better than Hillary Clinton, to which Biden replied, among other things in his 15-minute answer, “Hillary faced a lot of sexism, which was totally unfair,” and added “Well that’s not going to happen with me.”

Hayes said Biden’s response was “100% descriptively accurate, but also seems a little uncomfortable as a normative self-endorsement about being a man, but that’s some of the twisted decision-making that I think is going into people’s calculations right now.”

“I mean, we should be honest, we have a series of white men who are leading the pack, and women are supporting them in the polls, people of color are supporting them in the polls, and my analysis of this is that people who feel attacked are actually the most concerned about electability,” Tanden said.

“I think people who feel under attack by the Trump administration feel that it’s an existential issue to ensure that Trump is not reelected, and so I think it’s not surprising that lots of people are very focused on electability,” she continued, then added “I also am concerned about the lack of diversity in the process here, and that we’re losing candidates of color.”

“But that’s also happening because of support of voters, and actually people of color make up a large percentage, not a majority but a large percentage of the Democratic electorate, and they are not supporting these candidates, which I think is a concern,” Tanden said. “I do think people think the country is racist and sexist, Democrats think the country is racist and sexist because we have Donald Trump as president, and it is affecting their choice, and that is unfortunate but true.”

Warren remains in the top three in national polling averages, but her support has fallen off sharply after a cup of coffee in the lead. California Senator Kamala Harris enjoyed a few polling spikes and a brief time in second place, but that support slipped, and dropped out citing a lack of funding. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand dropped out inAugust after her campaign failed to gain significant support despite her qualifications, experience, and status as a Clinton protege. Many attribute this to her role in thepolitical demise of Al Franken.

The top three fundraisers are white men, but among all the frontrunners, Biden leads overwhelmingly with voters of color.

Trump was elected in 2016, with three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. But he’s had the bully pulpit for three years, has the advantage of incumbency, and a significant lead over each of the Democrats in fundraising.