“For us to be critical of the president and not be willing to stand up to one of our own would be hypocritical,” said Representative Donald McEachin of Virginia, who on Friday night called for the resignation of Mr. Northam, his classmate in the State Senate. “As we distinguish ourselves from the Trump Republican Party, we really need to be careful as to what we do.”Further, Mr. Trump’s willingness to wield race as a political weapon — portraying undocumented immigrants as murderers, for example — has also amplified the expectations of what Democratic activists expect from their own candidates. “The backlash against Trump’s hate has created more space and openness about issues of race and gender, at least in circles that are open to having those conversations,” said Gina Hinojosa, a Democratic state representative in Texas. But the expectations on the 2020 hopefuls to talk candidly about their own experiences, and how they relate to some of the country’s thorniest and deep-seated challenges, are not only being placed on the shoulders of the women and racial minorities in the field. Senator Elizabeth Warren has made the economic difficulties facing people of color a pillar of her stump speech, while Ms. Gillibrand used a Martin Luther King Day speech to speak about race and being a white woman.

Source: New York Times February 04, 2019 01:03 UTC