NEW ORLEANS — An unwieldy field of top Democrats clamored for critical ground in the run-up to the 2020 presidential primary over the weekend, courting progressive activists as they tilt toward a full-on campaign.

In a three-day audition of presidential campaign themes at the annual Netroots Nation conference, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) pledged not to be “shut up” by critics of “identity politics,” while Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) lamented “things that are savagely wrong in this country.”


At a forum across town, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called the criminal justice system “racist … front to back.”

For a Democratic Party desperate to keep its focus on the looming midterms, the gathering laid bare how quickly attentions can turn to 2020 — and how volatile the pre-primary contest remains.

No first-tier Democrat has announced that he or she will run. But when Cedric Richmond, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, asked Warren whether anything had changed since her decision not to seek the presidency in 2016, Warren replied, “Two words: Donald Trump.”

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Decamping from New Orleans on Saturday, the gathering served as validation of liberal voters’ increasing pull within the Democratic Party, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio heralding “the dawning of a new progressive era.” No fewer than eight prospective presidential candidates trekked through the convention halls, meeting privately with activist groups and maneuvering to outdo one another on the left.

On Friday, after Warren urged Democrats to embrace a “politics of unity” and not “fight division with division,” Harris used the same Netroots stage to emphasize that issues of race, gender and sexual orientation are among the issues that “define our identity as Americans.”

“I have a problem, guys, with that phrase, ‘identity politics,’” Harris said. “Because, let’s be clear, when people say that, it’s a pejorative. That phrase is used to divide, and it is used to distract. Its purpose is to minimize and marginalize issues that impact all of us. It is used to try and shut us up.”

Harris’ remarks placed her at the center of an intense debate within the Democratic Party about appeals based on gender, ethnic or other identities — at the expense, critics say, of a broader message that could appeal to white, working-class voters Democrats lost in 2016.

But for Harris, Warren and other liberal Democrats, the path to the White House will likely rely on a diverse coalition of nonwhite voters, young people, women and the college educated. Few people here were surprised that, within hours of Harris’ remarks, Warren was excoriating the criminal justice system in an appearance at a historically black university across town.

“Let’s just start with the hard truth about our criminal justice system,” Warren said at Dillard University. “It’s racist. … I mean all the way. I mean front to back.”

The large number of potential presidential candidates and uncertainty about who will run has largely delayed any jelling of allegiances among progressives. And with critical midterm elections on the horizon, Democratic officials discouraged explicit conversations about 2020. Unlike in 2015, when protesters shouted down Bernie Sanders, activists this year engaged in deep breathing exercises and held hands.

“We’ve got to focus on 2018,” said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. “I think that, largely, the Democratic family, and the Democratic team, is fortunately hewing to that position. … They are very united.”

At a conference laced with potential 2020 contenders, women and nonwhite candidates met raucous applause. Notably absent were Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, a front-runner in early national polls. (In a nod to Sanders’ enduring popularity, however, a bar near the convention hall lured activists with a sign that said “Bernie Sanders loves our beignets.”)

Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill, a fan of her home-state senator Chris Murphy, said “it’s interesting that sort of the progressives aren’t mentioning [Murphy] more than maybe they should be.”

“They’re more interested in looking at women, people of color,” she said.

Still, Merrill said the presidential primary is so far from taking shape that “every day I wake up, things change. … The world, it feels like it’s just flashing by. Maybe that’s why people don’t want to make predictions about 2020.”

Biden was heckled at a Netroots gathering in 2014, and Sanders struggled to win over nonwhite voters in the presidential primary two years later. But nearly every prospective Democratic candidate has vulnerabilities with some segments of the progressive base. Harris is a former prosecutor. Warren has fewer ties to black voters than some of her competitors. Tom Steyer managed a hedge fund.

Steyer, the megadonor environmentalist, carried a message that resonated here — accusing Democratic leaders of lacking the fortitude to support his call for impeaching President Trump, while Booker sought to further distance himself from his corporate ties.

Invoking Martin Luther King Jr., Booker called unemployment a “form of brutality” and told the crowd “we must all must reject the normalcy of injustice.”

“If America, if this country hasn’t broken your heart, then you don’t love her enough,” said Booker, who collected millions of dollars from corporate interests before announcing this year that he will not accept money from corporate PACs. “Because there’s things that are savagely wrong in this country.”

Within minutes, the Republican National Committee picked up and distributed a clip of Booker’s remarks on social media — even if the comments appeared only to help Booker with the Democratic base.

Of lower-profile candidates at Netroots, Inslee found a platform on a side panel, as did Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who spoke about net neutrality. After Bullock flew from New Orleans to Little Rock, Arkansas, on Saturday night to address the annual Clinton Dinner, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio drew loud cheers on the Netroots main stage.

Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America, predicted the candidate field could remain unsettled not only until after the November elections, but after state and local elections next year as well.

“This is definitely one of those times when we’re going to know a lot more after inflection points, and not before,” Dean said. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this field.”

In a reminder of how quickly a star can rise, perhaps no politician elicited more excitement this weekend than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a nearly anonymous figure before her upset victory in a House primary in New York in June.

Julián Castro, who followed Ocasio-Cortez on stage, acknowledged that he had been overshadowed.

“I have to go after Alexandria?” the former San Antonio mayor and Obama Cabinet secretary joked. As he started speaking, the crowd immediately began to thin.