Activists at Netroots Nation event contend that to win in November, Democrats must mobilize people of color and progressive white voters

After the speeches finished at the annual progressive Netroots Nation conference on Saturday, a small group of influential Hispanic political leaders and candidates made their way to Calcasieu for a private dinner in the heart of downtown New Orleans.

'Discourse is not discord': Democrats mostly united at Netroots Nation event Read more

The guest list included Julián Castro, Barack Obama’s secretary of housing and urban development secretary who is considered a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2020, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old rising star of progressive politics, Kevin de León, the former California state senate leader challenging Dianne Feinstein for Senate, and David Garcia, a gubernatorial candidate in Arizona. All addressed the convention on Saturday night.

Over shrimp and grits, they discussed the urgency of electing Hispanic leaders at all levels of government – including perhaps to the White House in 2020 – to forcefully push back against a president who has targeted their communities since the day he descended down a golden escalator to announce his candidacy.

“The new leaders of this movement are the ones that are under attack,” said Cristóbal Alex, president of Latino Victory Project, which convened the dinner. “It is by necessity that you’re seeing a much more diverse, powerful movement led by women, people of color and young allies.”

Their post-convention meeting underscored the theme of this year’s Netroots gathering, which implored Democrats to “abandon the myth of the white swing voter” and “invest in the multiracial, multicultural coalition” of progressive voters. The progressive movement, they said emphatically, must be led by women and people of color.

Attendance at the four-day conference was the highest it has ever been, and it was notably more diverse. A majority of the speakers and moderators were women and people of color, according to Netroots organizers, a statistic that drew a standing ovation. On the final evening of the conference, seven of the nine keynote speakers were people of color, including Castro, Ocasio-Cortez, de León and Garcia.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at the Netroots Nation annual conference for political progressives. Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters

“If we want to build a movement that is bold and sustaining then it is not only right and good but is politically strategic in the long run,” said Arshad Hasan, the chair of the board of Netroots Nation.





Progressives’ attempt to remake the party’s politics and its strategy puts them at odds with some party leaders and Washington-based Democrats. There is concern that the party’s leftward shift will alienate moderate voters in the red-state districts they must win to reclaim the House majority in November.

Here they were panned as the “voices of false pragmatism and phony moderation”.



“We tried it their way and we lost to a racist extremist,” said Cynthia Nixon, a New York gubernatorial candidate challenging governor Andrew Cuomo from the left. “Republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do, so we might as well give them the real thing.”

Since the election, Democrats have prioritized an economic message that they believe will appeal to “swing” voters in the Republican-leaning, suburban districts they must win. Despite the energy and momentum on the left, Democratic primary voters have largely chosen pragmatic candidates over those touting a progressive agenda.

But many activists at Netroots contended that to win in November and in future election cycles, Democrats must mobilize people of color and progressive white voters.

It is not political theory, Hasan said, it is basic arithmetic.

People of color compromise nearly 39% of the US population, a number that is expected to climb to more than 50% by 2045. And more immediately, there were 4.4 million people who voted for Obama in 2012 who did not vote in 2016 and another 2.3 million who switched from Obama in 2012 to a third-party candidate in 2016.

Hasan said if the party can galvanize that disaffected population while mobilizing young voters and people of color, Democrats won’t need to appeal to moderate white voters who left the party.

But the challenge for progressives is to move beyond a race-class paradigm that pits a colorblind economic populism against a social justice agenda. Activists here argued that the movement must embrace daring economic policies on public health and education without shying away from bold social reforms on criminal justice and immigration.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kevin de León, the former California state senate leader challenging Dianne Feinstein for Senate, at the Netroots event. Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters

“The left’s status quo has been to not talk about race. And when we do talk about race, the lesson we learn is that we lose. That’s the wrong lesson,” said Causten Rodriguez-Wollerman, a strategist with Demos Action, who led a training session “on creating and implementing a race-class narrative”.

“We don’t lose because we talk about race. We lose because we haven’t effectively talked about race.”

Research by his group, Demos, found that a political message that connects racial divisions and economic hardship was more effective at swaying voters than an economic message that does not address race.

Their findings are already gaining traction with Democrats, Rodriguez-Wollerman said. He noted that Senator Elizabeth Warren, a potential 2020 candidate, skillfully wound a race-class narrative in her keynote speech at the conference.

“The politics of division tells Americans to distrust each other, to fear each other, to hate each other,” she said. “They want us pointing fingers at each other so we won’t notice their hand in our pockets.”

Top Democrats who spoke at Netroots this year were warmly received, a contrast from years past, when protesters interrupted senator Bernie Sanders over what they said was a failure to sufficiently address racial issues. The only disruption in New Orleans was by a group of activists holding signs that said “#blackasscaucus”. They were given the stage for their protest, which demanded organizers include more representation from the host city at next year’s conference. The audience mostly applauded in agreement.

The conference attendees appeared to leave New Orleans on Sunday united in the conviction that the future is not only female, it is multiracial, multicultural and progressive.

“No longer should we just allow someone to stand before us and give their vision for our lives,” Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the 35-year-old mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, who was elected last year on a progressive agenda, said in his address to the conference.

“We have to be at the table. We have to dictate the policies. And we have to draft the leadership that represents our interests.”