But some activists say this idea of “electability” is a mythical trait.

“When we think about electability, people go to their images of who’s held power and who’s held authority in our society before,” said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible. “And the way that our society is structured, that’s disproportionately white men.”

When the campaign season first started, there was an assumption that high-profile black candidates like Harris or Booker benefited by following in Barack Obama’s footsteps.

“Obama had an easier political climate to operate in,” said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University, challenging that notion. “He didn’t talk about race because he needed to put a multiracial coalition together. And that’s a classic deracialized strategy.”