Communities of color will choose the next president

More than 15 million people tuned into the first Democratic debate this week, a two-night affair where a field of 20 candidates faced off on the issues that affect working families, from child care and good-paying jobs to climate change and immigration.

Let me tell you who didn’t tune in: my mom.

She works the night shift at a home care facility for the elderly and was feeding and bathing patients when the candidates took to the stage. But as she reads the news analysis of the debates, she’ll text me for my take on which candidates seemed like they understood — really understood — what it means to live and work to make ends meet in today’s America.

My mom will be like so many other would-be voters and residents who didn’t watch four hours of candidates over two days. They are working folks or parents with families who can’t devote that kind of time to politics. But they will find other ways to catch up. They will call or text friends and relatives. They will go through social media to see how the people they know are talking about the candidates.

These are the folks we want most engaged this election season.

It’s interesting that the first debate was in Florida, home to one of the most diverse electorates in the country and a state that has voted for the winning candidate every presidential election since 1996.

A third of its registered voters are people of color and in 2018, they came out in force to boost Florida’s voter turnout.

The turnout by Florida’s infrequent voters, made up of black people, Latinos, women and young people, reflects the momentum felt nationwide: When our communities cast ballots in historic numbers to vote, we win big. Our voters helped flip the House of Representatives — and state legislatures across the country — and helped make Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House once again.

But guess what? That historic turnout by communities of color isn’t a given.

If Democrats want to see a repeat of the 2018 turnout among voters of color in the next presidential election, they must remember to invest early and often in our communities. That means investing in groups that organize communities on the ground, as well as putting forward concrete policies that resonate with us. It means hiring a diverse staff that understands how to engage voters of color.

In other words, they need to walk the talk.

For communities of color, this kind of relationship building is key. Our communities are highly relational, which means that a lot of work goes into actually reaching out and connecting with individual voters, knocking on their doors and calling them multiple times. It means building the infrastructure that allows people to connect with those they know to encourage them to vote, attend rallies or raise their voices. I wonder how many of the 24 candidates have started to do that kind of work. But until they do, our communities won’t pay them too much mind.

Organizer know voters of color will engage when you engage them.

Orrganizations like mine, Community Change Action, are focused on building an electoral powerhouse among black, Latino, women and young people, all of whom make-up infrequent voters. By the spring of 2020, we will engage more than a quarter of a million voters across multiple states. A soaring number when you consider just 78,000 votes decided the 2016 presidential election.

This matters in a strong and free democracy that relies on all of us participating at the highest levels.

Every time the candidates take to a podium, they should remember that our communities are looking for candidates who live our nation’s values and actively support the ideals of freedom, respect and opportunity for all, regardless of the color of someone’s skin or where they were born.

We need candidates who will stop the over-policing of black and brown bodies. Candidates who recognize the valuable contributions to this country by our immigrant families and support them with a roadmap to citizenship and an end to the deportation machine that separates children from their parents, spouses from one another and brothers from their sisters.

Candidates who recognize that working families who are struggling to make ends meet need good-paying jobs with benefits and paid time off. They are families with young children, forced to choose between paying for rent and utilities or skyrocketing day care. They are the young people entering the workforce who can’t make their student loan payments or afford to move out of their parent’s house. Or the women, many like my mother who are women of color, who provide care to our ailing seniors and growing children. Many are paid so little, half of them need government resources to survive.

We’ll see which presidential candidates emerged from the crowd this week. If one thing has become abundantly clear is that the road to the White House in 2020 runs directly through communities of color.

Grecia Lima is the national political director for Community Change Action.