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The White House candidate, Bernie Sanders, had an enthusiastic reception when he gave a resounding show at an event focused on color voters, while Kamala Harris was ovationnée – but his rivals Elizabeth Warren and Beto vehemently contested their popularity. O & # 39; Rourke.
Women from 28 US states traveled to Houston, Texas Wednesday to hear the testimony of the top seven candidates for Democratic 2020 at an inaugural event called the She the People Presidential Forum, a day before Joe Biden would starts the race.
Women of color are such a powerful electoral bloc in America that they should play a determining, if not decisive, role in the choice of the Democratic candidate in the 2020 elections.
The candidates gathered at the event at Texas Southern University, a historically black university, in front of a dynamic audience of about 1,700 people of all ages and backgrounds, including individuals and representatives of more than 40 activist organizations.
Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren asked questions on topics such as immigration, women's health, race relations , hate crimes and inequalities in the workplace, climate change, poverty, education, criminal justice, foreign policy and the economy. And they had a mix of reactions.
When Bernie Sanders was asked about the prevalence of violence against women, his generic and apparently disconnected response was strongly criticized.
"You are not for us," shouted a female voice in the crowd. "You do not get the black community," was another comment, while others shouted, "Answer the question" as Sanders spoke of "troubled nation" and vaguely promised "that we must deal with the violence ". He was forced to take a break because he was interrupted several times and at one point had to pull himself together before finding his thread.
Several other candidates were warmly received, but not enthusiastic, or at times uneven, but Sanders was by far the most disapproved.
Harris, unsurprisingly, as the only black candidate, received a thunderous applause as she entered the stage and seemed to delight much of the room with in-depth answers on a range of socio-economic topics, enjoying a standing ovation during and after his speech.
But O & # 39; Rourke and especially Warren also delighted the crowd and, while Harris was warmly welcomed when he entered the scene, Warren was applauded by the most enthusiastic applause at the end of his stint, especially because She has pregnancy-related deaths in black women.
Bernie Sanders "did not present a particular policy (to show how he would tackle racial violence)," said Sayu Bhojwani, founder of the New American Leaders movement, which prepares the Americans of the first and second generation to stand for election.
She asked Sanders what he would do to prevent hate crimes such as the recent fire of three historically black churches in Louisiana. She found her answer vague.
"It's important to recognize that every candidate has responded to the invitation, so it's a sign of her understanding of the importance of women of color as an electoral bloc, but I think the Many people's answers were general, "she told The Guardian. then.
With respect to immigration, she was disappointed that no candidate has introduced any specific policy to prevent families from being separated at the US-Mexico border.
She the People reports that nearly 88% of women of color voters supported Democratic candidates in the 2018 session, compared to 48% of white women and 38% of white men.
Women of color are a priority target for Democrats and a particularly influential electoral bloc in several key early-voting states, such as South Carolina and Nevada, as well as large-scale states such as California and Texas. .
Ninety-two percent of black voters overwhelmingly supported progressive candidates in mid-term in 2018, while Hillary Clinton was their favorite in the 2016 presidential election, although Trump l & # 39; 39, won in 2016 in several states with a significant number of women of color.
Harris is one of the first favorites of this demographic group.
"Women of color are the fastest growing and fastest growing group, and the South and Southwest are battlefield states," said Aimee Allison, Founder of the Political Empowerment Network. from She the People, Guardian.
"I've seen a way for us to deeply influence politics and ultimately the Democratic Party candidate, most of whom we are members of. That's what we do 18 months in advance, "she added.
Allison said that although many White Democrat women were shocked by the fact that a majority of white women voted for Trump in 2016, "it was not a surprise to us, women of color" .
Eesha Pandit, co-founder and managing partner of the Houston and New York-based Center for Advancing Innovative Policy, said Klobuchar had handled the student loan crisis well, while Castro, Barack Obama's former housing secretary, was impressive in affordable housing. And she thought Warren was giving the kind of policy details she would have liked from other candidates.
Jessica Azua, an immigration coordinator at the Texas Organizing Project across the state, liked some of the answers about poverty, but not about immigration.
"I felt that some of them were just saying what we wanted to hear, but they were not really listening to what we were saying," she said.
Participants consistently refused to know who they would vote on in 2020.
Maia Young, campus organizer at Prairie View A & M University in Texas, said she consciously kept her mind open. "The questions were about things that young people, especially young people of color, want to know, and I do not see them very much," she said.
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