A forum for Democratic presidential candidates descended into pandemonium this weekend, as protesters aligned with the #BlackLivesMatter movement took control of the annual Netroots National conference for more than 15 minutes. They used this time to demand that the candidates address what one protester described as a “state of emergency” in “black and brown” communities.
Yet, while there are many reasons why issues such as police violence — which have a particularly damaging impact on these communities — have not played a major role in past presidential elections, one of them is baked into the Democratic Party’s nominating process. Would-be presidents must spend months prostrating themselves before overwhelmingly white electorates if they hope to gain a foothold in the race to become the party’s nominee.
Iowa, which holds special status as the first state to hold a nominating contest, is 92.5 percent white, according to 2013 census data. New Hampshire, which hosts the nation’s first primary, is even whiter (94.2 percent). African Americans make up only 3.3 percent of Iowans and 1.5 percent of people from New Hampshire. Hispanic or Latino residents make up only slightly more of both states’ populations.
Meanwhile, the United States as a whole is 77.7 percent white, 13.2 percent black and 17.1 percent Hispanic or Latino.
Yet, despite the fact that these two states bear little resemblance to the nation as a whole, they wield extraordinary power in the presidential nomination contest. In 2004, former Sen. John Kerry’s (D-MA) victory in Iowa started a wave that ended with him winning nearly every state in nation during the Democratic primary process. Meanwhile, Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) rode a second place finish to a vice presidential nomination, while Gov. Howard Dean’s (D-VT) and Rep. Dick Gephardt’s (D-MO) disappointing performances (along with Dean’s much mocked pep talk to his supporters after the Iowa caucuses) presaged the collapse of their campaigns.
Likewise, in 2008, the winner of the Iowa caucuses — Barack Obama — was the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Indeed, Obama’s strong performance in lily-white Iowa was viewed as a sign that the African American senator could appeal to white voters.
Potentially even more important than Iowa and New Hampshire’s oversized role in selecting nominees, however, is the way that the primary schedule strips away candidates’ incentives to speak to issues specific to communities of color — at least during the long lead-up to these two states’ nominating contests.
During the Netroots protest this past weekend, a protester named Tia Oso took center stage and spoke to the crowd at length — and she made it clear that her movement would not be satisfied with proposals that ignore issues specific to racial minorities in favor of a broader, cross-racial agenda. At one point, Oso criticized the Netroots conference organizers for not creating a “local focused, black focused space.” She ended her speech by asking former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley what he would do to “dismantle, not reform, not make progress, but begin to dismantle structural racism in the United States.”
Similarly, protesters jeered O’Malley when he tried to placate them with three ill-chosen sentences: “Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.” The phrase “all lives matter,” in particular, is viewed by many members of the #BlackLivesMatter movement as an attempt to dismiss the fact that black people in the United States carry a burden of racism that is not carried by white Americans. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who followed O’Malley on the stage, did not fare any better when he tried to pivot to a broader economic agenda, rather than addressing concerns that are unique to communities of color.
While O’Malley and Sanders stumbled at Netroots, the nominating process itself actually disincentivizes them from focusing on the issues that animate #BlackLivesMatter. Both men are caught in a difficult race against a strong frontrunner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who did not attend Netroots. That means that their candidacies may be cut off in their infancies unless the two candidates find a way to shine in Iowa and New Hampshire. And the overwhelmingly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire are far less likely than other states to be moved by proposals addressing the legitimate grievances of communities seeking to cast off the yoke of racism.