After Sen. Kamala Harris abruptly dropped out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, the famously inclusive party wasn’t looking very inclusive anymore.
Without being too cheeky, you might say that the party that highlights diversity and equality is suffering from an embarrassment of wealthy white men.
Or, as Sen. Cory Booker described the irony last week, when only six people, all white, had met the party’s new threshold to qualify for next week’s debate in Los Angeles, the stage on Dec. 19 is likely to have “more billionaires than black people.”
“What message is that sending — that we heralded the most diverse field in our history,” Booker told a morning crowd in Des Moines last week, “and now we’re seeing people like her dropping out of this campaign?”
Yes, political correctness cuts both ways. As much as the party can boast of having more women and people of color than ever in the House after last year’s midterm elections, and in their lineup of presidential candidates, it’s another big challenge to hold onto that diversity.
Among top-tier candidates of color, businessman Andrew Yang qualified for the debate Tuesday, just days before this week’s deadline, joining six other candidates on the stage. Booker and former housing secretary Julian Castro have met the party’s donor threshold, but neither has scored high enough in a single qualifying poll to make the debate, according to The New York Times debate tracker.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii scored enough in polling and fundraising to be listed as “on the cusp” as of Tuesday. Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts also appears to have entered the race too late to make the stage.
But things can change. With Harris’ departure, Booker’s blunt blast about billionaires appears to have given a boost to his own fundraising. He raised more than $1 million within three days of Harris dropping out on Dec. 3. The day after Harris dropped out was his best online fundraising day, his campaign announced, and more than half of the surge came from first-time donors.
Of course, I already can see moans and groans in social networks about “identity politics,” as if that were a new thing in politics. In fact, women and people of color have seen identity politics played against them for so long that one can hardly blame them for using it to push back, especially in a campaign to unseat President Donald Trump, who often has fashioned a tribe based on conservative grievances.
That’s legitimate, in my humble opinion, but it doesn’t substitute for a clear theme and purpose to one’s campaign. Harris lost momentum on both counts. After her strong performance in the first debate with her takedown of frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden’s early voting record, she seemed to peak quickly, unprepared for criticism of her own record as a prosecutor.
Her campaign struggled with reported fundraising and organizational problems. But mainly she lacked what the late George H.W. Bush once called, the “vision thing.”
Those questions matter as Democrats try to restore the multiracial, multiethnic coalition that carried President Barack Obama to two victories. About 4.4 million voters who cast ballots for Obama in 2012 stayed home in 2016, according to exit polls by Edison Media Research. More than a third were black.
So, as much as candidates should never make too much of race or gender politics, which can invite a backlash, they can’t take women or people of color for granted either.
The politically awkward possibility of an all-white Democratic debate stage shows, among other new realities, that symbolism isn’t as powerful as it used to be with potential voters.
It annoys some liberals when “electability” questions are raised about Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example. But, for all the milestones that have been made by progressives such as Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, black Democrats in particular have been showing a persistent and resilient pull toward the familiar presence of Obama’s former vice president, Biden.
That’s important, even as South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has gained top-tier status in Iowa polling and Warren is looking strong in New Hampshire, next door to her home state of Massachusetts.
Biden continues to lead in South Carolina, where most of the Democratic primary voters are black — and where Buttigieg recently scored a 0% of black voters. The mayor will do better, I’m sure, especially since he has nowhere to go in that poll but up.
Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.
Twitter @cptime