2020 Democrats go all-in on "identity politics"

The shift is largely a response to Trump. His words and actions on issues infused with race — from NFL players protesting police violence during the national anthem, to proposing a ban on all Muslim immigration, to family separations at the southern border — have roused Democratic activists to demand a full-throated response, according to interviews with dozens of progressive activists and aides to several potential 2020 candidates.

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“I think people on the left are really looking for someone that can take on corporate power and eradicate systemic racism,” said Karthik Ganapathy, who served as a spokesman for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential run…

The recent, more explicit rhetoric on race among potential 2020 Democratic hopefuls — who, to varying degrees, have addressed racial issues for years — is at least partly strategic. Black voters are likely to be decisive in many 2020 primaries, especially in the South.

“It’s fairly simple–s/he who wins the black vote, wins the primary,” one adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign said in a text message.

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