As long as you’re alive, you’re in the race. Seventy-seven-year-old Joe Biden suddenly finds himself closest to the finish line in the US Democratic primaries, after having been written off on several occasions. A month ago, Bernie Sanders, and not Joe Biden, was widely declared the clear front-runner to win the primaries. And then, all of a sudden, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, moderate candidates competing for votes with Biden, unexpectedly pulled out of the race and announced their support for the former US vice-president, who now leads Sanders; 664 delegates have declared their support for Biden, 573 for Sanders.
Progressive candidate Elizabeth Warren, who vied for votes with Sanders, also pulled out of the race. The moderate and progressive votes within the party are now clearly split between two candidates, Biden and Sanders. Ironically, the two candidates endorsed by The New York Times in mid-January, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, have both dropped out of the race. Many rued the fact that this left no viable woman candidate in the race.
While the drama will further unfold on Tuesday as six more states go to polls in the primaries, the contest that once included a plethora of candidates now boils down to two white men in their 70s, a centrist and a leftist. In a primary that once included a candidate of colour, Kamala Harris, women like Warren and Klobuchar, and a gay man, Pete Buttigieg, many lament the fact that the winner will not represent the diversity that many of the contestants who dropped out of the primary brought with them.
What is heartening, though, is that both white men locked in battle to become the Democratic presidential nominee, have immense support with America’s people of colour. The credit for Biden’s surge ahead of Super Tuesday, when a host of states went to polls, goes to show the tremendous support he enjoys among black voters. Sanders’s win in states like California has been pegged to his huge support among Latinos.
While Sanders was earlier criticised for not doing enough to reach out to black voters, he has, in recent years, made an extra effort to do so, while Biden is scrambling to reach out to the Latinx community.
Biden has been a regular at events that support the black community, such as the Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama that commemorates violence targeted at African Americans fighting for the right to vote half a century ago. While a number of Democratic nominees joined the march this year, Biden is seen as someone with a longstanding commitment to the black community, not someone who is making a guest appearance. Biden is also beloved among the black community because he was the vice president who stood by Barack Obama, America’s first black president. Many black voters also believe that a moderate like Biden would be the best bet when it comes to beating Trump.
While older black voters prefer Biden, Sanders enjoys greater support among younger black voters, who believe in the need for radical changes in the government, and a hope for more equitable medical services and a reduction in massive student debt. Meanwhile, Sanders has endeared himself to the Latinx population, promising to reverse Trump’s brutal immigration policies. He wants to create a comprehensive immigration program that will include a pathway to citizenship for large swathes of undocumented workers. This means a lot for Latinos who have long struggled for recognition and full citizenship in America, and are throwing their lot behind Sanders.
An endorsement from the young Latina Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who called him Tío Bernie, has furthered his support among Latinos. It is particularly heartening that Sanders, with his Latino base, is wooing the black community and Biden, with his black base, is wooing Latinos. The two front-runners in the US Democratic primary are doing their level best to represent America’s most marginalised communities. Sanders himself has done so at the cost of white, working-class votes. The focus has long been on how Biden represents the moderate faction of Democrats while Sanders represents the party’s progressive streak. However, it is important to note that, no matter who wins, the next Democratic presidential nominee will enjoy immense support from people of colour, while taking on a deeply racist president buoyed by the support of white supremacists.
Anahita Mukherji
An independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area Tweets @newspaperwalli