Dittmar said she is not confident that Sanders and Biden, unlike O’Rourke, “have gotten to that point in which they realize… the limitations they have as older white men in being able to understand the challenges of women and communities of color.”

Those limits came into sharp relief this past week. Biden faced awkward questions about refusing to directly apologize to women who said they were made uncomfortable by his touching and the affectionate gestures he lavished on them.

Sanders was booed by black women at a conference when he conveyed a 56-year-old anecdote about marching with civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. when asked how he would combat racism and advocate for people of color.

Such gestures by the frontrunners are “not enough,” Dittmar said.