CLEVELAND, Ohio – Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, is taking a more direct approach to criticizing Republican President Donald Trump on the issue of race as he contemplates running for president in 2020.

Democrats have been perfectly willing to attack Trump for a plethora of reasons, arguing his policies benefit the wealthy, criticizing him for attempting to roll back the Affordable Care Act and feeling that he’s degrading the office. But Brown is doing something a little different from the rest of the serious presidential contenders: he’s flatly calling the president a racist.

Candidates thus far have generally eschewed directly attacking Trump as a racist. They decry his policies as racist, his actions as racist or his rhetoric as racist. But they never get around to saying that about the president himself (save for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders).

Take New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker for instance. At his announcement, Booker was asked whether he thought Trump was a racist.

“I don't know that he, uh. I don't know the heart of anybody. I'll leave that to the Lord,” Booker said, before criticizing Trump’s actions and some of the openly white supremacist figures who support the president.

It’s a delicate dance that the Democratic Party has done over the past two years. On one side is the general avoidance of using the word “racist” at all in politics when describing a lawmaker.

On the other side are the fervent Democrats who vehemently think Trump is a racist and are tired of politicians avoiding the word.

There’s no debate here.



Trump’s racist.



Period. — Scott Dworkin (@funder) February 4, 2019

That’s left the presidential hopefuls caught between the two, trying to offer enough criticism of Trump to appeal to the base but not appear too partisan as if they are attacking the people who voted for Trump in 2016.

Brown’s style is different.

First, let’s take a look at the exchange Brown had on Sunday with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd after a question about the scandal surrounding Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam:

Brown: Well, I think this country hasn't dealt well with the issues of race. I mean, we have a president who's a racist.

Todd: Let me pause you there. You believe, in his heart, he's a racist?

Brown: Well, I don't know what, "in his heart," means. I know that he built his political career, knowing what he was doing on questioning the legitimacy and the birthplace of the President of the United States. I know, early, and we -- there have been all kinds of news reports about what he did early in his career on housing. We know, I mean, read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Read The Color of Law, about housing discrimination and decades and decades and decades of housing discrimination. And we know that the Trump family, including the now-sitting president, played to that and deepened that. So these issues, this is not a recent — Charlottesville was only a symptom and a more-public viewing and outing, if you will, of the president's views about race. I mean, there's just no question about that. We know the president doesn't tell the truth frequently. We know he lies frequently. And we know of his racial back — racist comments and background.

We saw how Trump built a political brand questioning Obama’s legitimacy and birthplace.



We know Trump committed housing discrimination.



We see how he is dividing our country and deepening wounds.



Trump is a racist. There is no question about that. https://t.co/h6KXACBolt — Sherrod Brown (@SherrodBrown) February 4, 2019

How – and why – is Brown playing it differently than the other candidates?

First and foremost, he believes it. He called Trump a bigot numerous times during his Senate re-election campaign. Brown got into a public spat with the White House in 2017 after saying senior administration advisers were white supremacists. In the run-up to his early-state tour exploring a presidential run, which he continues this week in New Hampshire, Brown – a longtime populist – took issue with Trump’s “phony populism,” which he said was rooted in racism and anti-Semitism.

“Real populism is not racist. Real populism is not anti-Semitic. Real populists don’t engage in hate speech and don’t rip babies from families at the border," Brown said during the kickoff to his early-state listening tour.

It’s no surprise that he said it again, only this time in front of a national audience. Brown isn’t exactly known for mincing words.

“He feels strongly about fighting for everyone no matter if you’re black, white, Latino, Asian or otherwise,” said Justin Barasky, Brown’s 2018 Senate campaign manager. “He’s also cognizant of many of the hurdles that various races unfairly have to face in day-to-day life. Especially from this president.”

Secondly, whereas a lot of politicians will approach the subject of racism gingerly out of a fear of backlash, that’s unlikely to happen to Brown, assuming he decides to run.

Brown is trying to get his message – and his name – out to the public right now. He’s lesser-known than most of the other candidates, but the idea is that he can be the liberal version of the blunt-talking, blue-collar candidate that Trump was in 2016, sans the divisive rhetoric.

Brown’s comments on “Meet the Press” are entirely in line with who Brown is and the message he’s pushing. The focus of his campaigns have almost always been on economic issues, but he’s been a staunch ally on civil rights during his four-decade political career. His “dignity of work” theme that he’s testing right now comes from a speech by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The basis of Brown’s message on the trail is improving conditions for all workers, regardless of race, ethnicity or gender while rejecting the politics of division.

Whether strategic or not, the efficacy of Brown’s comments showed. It became national news with numerous outlets running stories on it. It also helped solidify his liberal credentials while he’s running a campaign that doesn’t support a Medicare-for-all style health care system and takes campaign contributions from corporate PACs, two issues that are rapidly becoming litmus tests for Democratic candidates.

And with almost zero blowback. Conservative media barely picked up on the story. Meanwhile, it endeared him to the liberal base on social media. It’s such a blip in the grand scheme of things that it served as an introduction to many, but likely won’t be an issue one year from now when the first votes are cast during the Iowa caucus.

“It’s a loaded word in our society. You have to be careful when using it,” said David Yepsen, retired Des Moines Register chief political reporter. “But he’s got a reputation for straight, blunt talk. It would surprise no one. The average caucus-goer who he’s trying to reach is going to say, ‘Yeah, he’s right.’”

By November 2020 or 2024 – when Brown is up for re-election in the Senate, the interview will be moot.

Brown is also coming at Trump from a point of privilege. As a white, Midwestern senator, he doesn’t have to be worried about being labeled the “angry, black candidate” for discussing Trump’s racial views. Because of that, he’s free to make the criticism.

Most importantly is what voters think. Depending on which national poll you look at, a lot of people say they think Trump is racist.

In an Associated Press poll from February 2018, 57 percent of respondents said Trump was a racist, including 21 percent of Republicans. In a Quinnipiac University poll from July last year, 49 percent of voters said they thought Trump was racist, while 47 percent said he was not.

Democrats made major gains during the 2018 midterm elections, and it wasn’t through avoiding criticism of the president. Speaking softly about the subject of racism is not remotely what Democratic voters want to hear. And it’s easy to look at the white backlash that swept Trump into office as proof that candidates shouldn’t be so blunt on their racial critiques of the president, but that ignores the growing coalition of Democratic voters made up of minorities, women and young people.

In just about every poll, minority, women and young voters say the president is a racist at a much higher rate than other groups. And there’s research to show that racism and racial justice were significant motivators in the midterms.

Research from Mi Familia Vota, a national civic engagement organization focused on the Latino community, conducted just before the elections, found 77 percent of Latino voters thought the president had a negative impact on communities of color. Seventy percent said Republicans didn’t care about or were hostile to their community and 90 percent said, “We should stand up for Americans of all backgrounds.”

Another survey conducted by the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization focused on racial equality, also done before the midterms, found voters of color aged 18 to 24 view racial justice as a significant motivating factor.

“The results of the poll clearly indicate that the principal issue for these voters, including young African-American, Latinx, Asian-American, and Native American voters care most about is racism and racial justice,” said Zerline Hughes, spokeswoman for the Advancement Project National Office. “The enthusiasm for voting for these voters of color is not about presidential scandals, affronts, or gaffes. It is about the racism they feel and experience in America today. Voters of color, regardless of race and especially among younger voters, strongly reject the politics of division and hate, and are eager for racial solidarity and racial justice, not only in rhetoric but also in their day to day lives.”

Basically, a lot of voters want blunt talk about issues of racial equity and the effects policies have on minority communities.

“It’s 2020. It’s time to learn to be very candid about race in America,” said Karina Martinez, communications director for Mi Familia Vota, in an interview with cleveland.com. “I would say for our purposes as a civic engagement organization, we (want candidates to) point to the facts, the figures and the policies. Certain laws and policies may or may not work against certain communities.”