Sen. Cory A. Booker on Thursday said the views of African-Americans can get left behind when there’s a discussion on whether a particular political candidate is “electable” — one of the key selling points for 2020 Democratic presidential rival Joseph R. Biden.

“I want to talk about what people often mean when they say or ask, ‘is somebody electable?’” the New Jersey Democrat said.

“Because most of the time, when somebody is asking about electability, they’re not asking about the African-American voters who make up the most reliable constituency of the Democratic Party,” he said. “And that’s a problem.”

Mr. Booker was speaking at a National Urban League conference in Indianapolis, where he and several other 2020 presidential candidates are scheduled to appear on Thursday and Friday.

“The truth is, we need to understand that we cannot beat Donald Trump unless we have a large, vibrant turnout in the black community,” he said.

“We know that the question is going to be asked, in communities like ours, what did you do when you were not running for president to fight for the communities that you now want to represent?” Mr. Booker said. “What were you doing five, 10, 15 or 20 years ago to fight for racial justice, to combat racial inequality and structural inequality?”

Mr. Booker did not mention Mr. Biden by name in his remarks, but has criticized him as an “architect” of “mass incarceration” for his role in helping write a 1994 crime bill, which has emerged as a key point of criticism Mr. Biden’s rivals have tried to use against him thus far.

“When I tell you that as president of the United States I will dismantle a system of mass incarceration, you can believe me because it’s the work that I’ve been doing for the past two decades of my life,” Mr. Booker said on Thursday.

Mr. Biden, meanwhile, has defended his record on civil rights and racial justice, saying Wednesday at an NAACP forum that he doubted President Barack Obama would have tapped him as vice president if his past history in those areas was as questionable as his critics are alleging.

Though he’s slipped in some recent polling, the former vice president’s strength among African-American voters has helped him maintain his front-runner status thus far in the race for the party’s nomination.

The Biden campaign pushed back on Twitter by sharing recent polling that showed the former vice president with a commanding lead over Mr. Booker and the other 2020 Democratic contenders among black voters.

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