Democratic White House hopefuls tout agendas to black voters

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Democratic presidential candidates touted their plans Friday on criminal-justice reform, the study of reparations and other racial equality issues, highlighting the critical role black voters will play in choosing the party’s 2020 nominee.

Speaking at the National Action Network’s conference in New York, California Sen. Kamala Harris pledged to double the size of the Justice Department’s civil-rights division and to sign legislation creating a commission to study reparations to blacks hurt by slavery. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also said he would sign that reparations bill, even as he emphasized the importance of a broader anti-poverty policy.

“We know that they are using the Department of Justice in a way that is about politics and not about pursuit of equality,” Harris, one of two black leading candidates for the party’s nomination, told the receptive audience. Earlier on Friday, she told a radio interviewer she would be open to choosing a woman as her running mate if she wins the nomination to take on President Donald Trump.

Sanders, who fell short in his 2016 presidential bid but is a front-runner in 2020, elated the crowd by jabbing at Trump as “a racist, sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe and a religious bigot.”

He had previously questioned the lack of specifics in the reparations debate, calling for a detailed focus on economic recovery for low-income black communities. But Sanders said Friday he would “of course” sign a study bill on the issue, aligning himself with six other Democratic candidates who spoke at the group’s annual conference this week.

One of those candidates, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, used her speech to escalate her call for Democrats to end the 60-vote requirement for many major bills to clear the Senate if her party wins the White House and Republicans try to block their agenda. Warren outlined the history of the Senate filibuster’s use “as a tool to block progress on racial justice,” adding that Democrats should “be bold and clear” if they take back the presidency.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker roused the crowd by making the case for his plan to give every American child a savings account, with extra contributions for those from low-income families, as a means to close the nation’s racial wealth gap.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper used his speech to outline his record on policing, suggesting that the nation “shutter some prisons altogether.”

Other White House hopefuls also spoke at the conference to spotlight their records on remedying economic and social inequities that have impeded black communities. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan addressed the group Friday. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind., spoke earlier in the week.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who founded the group, told attendees Friday that the day was about “mainstreaming the racial divide in America” as well as “changing the conversation, so we’re all included.”