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At She the People Forum, Candidates Speak Directly to Women of Color She the People Forum Puts Spotlight on Race and Gender in 2020 Contest
(about 4 hours later)
At a forum in Houston on Wednesday hosted by the political group She the People, Democratic presidential candidates spoke directly to a crucial constituency in their party’s primaries: women of color. Women of color are an increasingly powerful voting bloc and an essential part of any winning Democratic coalition. But presidential candidates rarely speak directly to them.
The questions spanned a range of topics, including voting rights and health care, and were all asked by women of color, who make up about one-fifth of the primary electorate and more in some key states, Aimee Allison, the founder of She the People, noted in her introductory speech. Enter the She the People Presidential Forum, hosted in Houston on Wednesday by the political group She the People. Eight of the 19 Democratic candidates spoke at the event, which was billed as the first presidential forum for women of color and drew an audience of more than 1,000 people. The topics ranged from voting rights to health care, and the questions came exclusively from women of color — who make up about one-fifth of the primary electorate and more in some key states, said Aimee Allison, the group’s founder and president.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who was the first candidate to speak, promised, as he has before, to choose a woman as his running mate if he is nominated. “The broad thing I was hoping to do was to get a sense for the competency and comfort that each candidate had talking about racial, gender and economic justice,” Ms. Allison said in an interview after the event. “Are they even comfortable talking about it, and can they engender trust?”
In the first question of the afternoon, which concerned his environmental policies, he noted the disparate impact of climate change and pollution on communities of color. Much has been made of the need to address climate change within 10 to 12 years, Mr. Booker said, but in cities like Newark, where he served as mayor before being elected to the Senate, “the life-or-death issues are happening right now.” Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders all spoke, as did Representative Tulsi Gabbard, former Representative Beto O’Rourke, and the former housing secretary Julián Castro. But the star of the afternoon was Senator Elizabeth Warren, who received a standing ovation and was singled out by multiple attendees afterward. They cited the specificity and thoroughness of Ms. Warren’s answers — a hallmark of her campaign — starting from the first question, which concerned maternal mortality.
In another key moment, an audience member asked Mr. Booker about Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, whom Mr. Trump has targeted over her comments on Israel. Ms. Omar has reported an increase in death threats as a result. After noting that maternal mortality is increasing in the United States and that black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die in childbirth, Ms. Warren described a plan to tie hospitals’ reimbursements to their patient outcomes.
“The criticisms of Congresswoman Omar, what Donald Trump has been saying about her, is reprehensible, it is trafficking in Islamophobia, and it should be condemned by everyone,” he responded. The president’s language, he added, fuels the far-right attacks that have been the most common type of terrorism in the United States since the 9/11 attacks. Instead of the current “fee for services” model, in which hospitals itemize charges, Ms. Warren proposed a model of lump sums for specific procedures. “And if they bring down those maternal mortality rates, then they get a bonus,” she said, “and if they don’t, they’re going to have money taken away from them.”
Ms. Warren “hit it out of the park, to be honest,” said Alia Salem, the founder of Facing Abuse in Community Environments and former executive director of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “She spoke with a lot of specificity, she had plans for everything, and I didn’t see anybody respond to the other candidates the way they responded to her.”
Ms. Allison praised Mr. Castro, too, for the specificity of his remarks. Mr. Castro — who began by pointing out, to laughter, that the organizers had mistakenly used a photo of his twin brother, Representative Joaquin Castro, in the program — called for property tax relief and more affordable housing to protect people of color in gentrifying neighborhoods. He also discussed universal prekindergarten, a major element of his platform.
Mr. Sanders, who is polling well ahead of any of the other candidates at Wednesday’s event, received a mixed reception.
Ms. Salem said she saw him as authentic, contrasting him and Ms. Warren to several of the other candidates, who she said seemed to be reading from a playbook on “how to speak on issues that are important to women of color.” But after an enthusiastic greeting, Mr. Sanders seemed to lose the crowd somewhat. He did not discuss many policy details, and when asked what he would do for women of color as president, he talked instead about helping marginalized groups in general.
“For a lot of women of color, the challenge is we’ve heard that before,” Ms. Allison said. “If you don’t specifically call out those who are most marginalized, often we’re forgotten.”
Several candidates were asked about criminal justice and the so-called “war on drugs,” which has disproportionately affected people of color. Ms. Harris, a former prosecutor, focused on this issue in particular, calling for the legalization of marijuana and saying laws against it had “contributed to the problem of mass incarceration in our country and led disproportionately to the criminalization of young black and brown men in this country.”
Ms. Klobuchar, also a former prosecutor, was asked about a different element of law enforcement: police killings of black people. After saying that she had supported the prosecution of the officer who killed Philando Castile in Minnesota, her home state, she called for more funding for police training; said police departments and grand juries should “reflect the communities that we serve”; and argued that police departments should not be able to run the investigations of their own officers.
Ms. Allison praised that answer, but added that Ms. Klobuchar had seemed “unprepared” for one question that every candidate was asked: With so many candidates to choose from, why should women of color choose you?
Mr. Booker, who was the first candidate to speak, received his biggest applause for noting that climate change is already disproportionately affecting poor communities and people of color. He also denounced President Trump’s attacks toward Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim women in Congress, who has reported an increase in death threats since Mr. Trump began targeting her.
“What Donald Trump has been saying about her is reprehensible, it is trafficking in Islamophobia, and it should be condemned by everyone,” Mr. Booker said, adding that the president’s language was fueling the far-right attacks that have been the most common type of terrorism in the United States since 9/11.
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Julián Castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development, spoke repeatedly of universal pre-kindergarten as a crucial measure to support low-income Americans, and especially people of color. As mayor of San Antonio, he established a public pre-K program that he has suggested replicating at the national level. Mr. O’Rourke, meanwhile, focused on immigration, pointing to his home city, El Paso, which Mr. Trump has cited as an emblem of disorder. El Paso is actually one of the safest large cities in the country, Mr. O’Rourke said, adding: “That safety is not despite of the fact that we are a city of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees. It is because we are a city of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees.”
He also addressed the issue of gentrification, calling for “a greater supply of affordable housing so that people can afford to live in their own neighborhood,” and also for some form of property tax relief. And Ms. Gabbard, who drew criticism early in the race for her past views on gay rights, said she wanted to repeal Mr. Trump’s ban on transgender service members. She also denounced “regime change” wars and said, in response to a question about Syria, that the United States could not continue to be “the policeman of the world.”
Asked whether he believed some Wall Street bankers should have gone to prison for their actions before and during the recession, he did not answer directly. “I will make sure that no matter who you are, no one is above the law in this country, and that includes Wall Street,” he said. As the last segment — Ms. Warren’s — wrapped up, the moderators brought up something of an elephant in the 2020 room: the sense among some Democrats, after the experience of 2016, that Americans aren’t ready to elect a woman.
Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who has drawn criticism for her record on gay rights, said she wanted to repeal Mr. Trump’s ban on transgender service members. Having deployed twice to the Middle East, she said, she knew gender identity didn’t matter among soldiers: “If it came down to it, they would give their life for me, I would give my life for them.”
Senator Kamala Harris of California, a former prosecutor, focused heavily on criminal justice, including the so-called war on drugs, whose effects have fallen disproportionately on people of color. She called — as she has before — for the legalization of marijuana, saying laws against it had “contributed to the problem of mass incarceration in our country and led disproportionately to the criminalization of young black and brown men in this country.”
She added that an underlying issue was untreated mental illness leading people to self-medicate, and called for more funding for mental health care.
Asked about voting rights, she noted a specific element of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election: It preyed on race and racism, which Ms. Harris called “America’s Achilles’ heel.”
“The irony of it all,” she said, is that what was typically seen as a civil rights issue “has now become a national security issue.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota was asked about a different element of law enforcement: police killings of black people. After saying that she had supported the prosecution of the officer who killed Philando Castile in her home state, she called for more funding for police training; said police departments and grand juries should “reflect the communities that we serve”; and argued that police departments should not be able to run the investigations of their own officers.
Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas representative who came close to unseating Senator Ted Cruz last year, focused heavily on immigration and related issues, including the Trump administration’s attempt to put a citizenship question on the 2020 census. He pointed to his home city, El Paso, which Mr. Trump has cited as an emblem of disorder. El Paso is actually one of the safest large cities in the country, Mr. O’Rourke said, adding: “That safety is not despite of the fact that we are a city of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees. It is because we are a city of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees.”
An audience member asked Mr. O’Rourke what he would do for tipped workers, who are routinely paid less than minimum wage on the expectation that tips will make up the difference. The audience member, herself a restaurant server, said a man had once “refused to give me a tip because I refused to give him my number.” Mr. O’Rourke responded that he supported a $15 minimum wage for all workers, including tipped workers.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke less about policy than about the broad, systemic inequities that often dominate his campaign speeches. He said tackling sexual violence would require “not only specific plans and programs,” but “a fundamental change in the culture of this country.” He vowed to nominate judges “who will represent the needs of people of color, of working people, and who are prepared to believe and fight for justice, not just the people on top.”
But the most enthusiastic reception of the day was for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who appeared last and began her segment by outlining a plan to reduce maternal mortality — which is rising in the United States, unlike in other developed countries, and is significantly higher among black women than white women. She suggested tying hospitals’ reimbursements to their outcomes, paying bonuses to hospitals that reduce mortality rates and taking money from those that don’t.
Later, the moderators brought up what has been something of an elephant in the 2020 room: the fear among some Democrats, after the experience of 2016, that Americans aren’t ready to elect a woman and that they should therefore nominate a man.
“We’ve got a roomful of people here who weren’t given anything. We have a roomful of people here who had to fight for what they believe in,” Ms. Warren responded. “Are we going to show up for people that we didn’t actually believe in because we were too afraid to do anything else? That’s not who we are. That’s not how we’re going to do this.”“We’ve got a roomful of people here who weren’t given anything. We have a roomful of people here who had to fight for what they believe in,” Ms. Warren responded. “Are we going to show up for people that we didn’t actually believe in because we were too afraid to do anything else? That’s not who we are. That’s not how we’re going to do this.”
The event, billed as the first-ever presidential forum for women of color, took place at Texas Southern University, a historically black university in Houston. Before the first candidate came onstage, Leah Daughtry, pastor of the House of the Lord Church in Washington and former chief of staff for the Democratic National Committee, led the audience in a chant:
“Our votes matter. Our votes matter. Our votes matter.”