Women of color emerging as powerful voting bloc

Remember when the so-called “soccer moms” were all the rage, a nod to the voting power of white, suburban women?

Politicians fell all over themselves, and sometimes stumbled badly, to court the overly generalized cohort. Gaffes included too many references to the minivans they didn’t all drive and offensive depictions of cul-de-sac dwellers too harried to juggle a professional career and motherhood.

That was 1996. And since then, white middle-class female voters have been credited with helping to send Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump into the White House.

They’ll play a role in 2020. But these ladies are also slowly being replaced — not in a crudely discriminatory way but rather through the reality of demographics.

Since 2000, the number of citizen voting-age non-Hispanic white women has increased by 8 percent. Meanwhile, the number of citizen voting-age women of color has grown by 59 percent. That’s 13.5 million more potential African American, Latino, Asian, Native American and biracial voters, according to the Center for American Progress.

Do you think the legions of political gurus, spin consultants and wannabe candidates are more apt to get it right with these women? I fear not. And that’s a worrisome premise for Democrats hoping to limit President Donald Trump to one administration.

“Women of color, with their distinct histories, experiences and collective power, are not monolithic,” the Center report cautioned. “They have distinct interracial and intra-racial perspectives.”

The leading Democratic candidates at this point are not the politicians who demonstrate the most respect for women of color.

Right now, neither Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren nor Pete Buttigieg consistently emote a deep, authentic connection with the joys and struggles of women of color. They can speak statistically about such things. But it’s not the same.

And one doesn’t have to be a person of color to get it right. You do have to listen long and hard and, devoid of assumptions, spend a lot of time with people unlike yourself.

Asian, African American, Latino and Native American women often possess a heightened sense of emotional intelligence about such things. We have to. It’s a survival tactic honed from being the minority in many situations. We’re used to reading a room. We know what it’s like to be the only person of color there.

It can be exhausting. And different women bear it differently.

But imagine being the less visible person of color — say, a Latina who has married and no longer carries a surname like Lopez, Gonzalez or Sanchez. Oh, the things people say. And, yes, people know when politicians are patronizing by throwing in a little Spanish (or other non-English languages) or some slang to try and create a connection with a community that they haven’t worked to gain. (Rural white voters can relate here.)

Which candidates speak authentically to women of color?

Kamala Harris passionately commanded such a moment during the November Democratic debate. Her point was how Democrats have taken black women’s votes for granted.

It wasn’t just what she said. But how she said it.

And 2020 could be the year when those black female voters decree that enough is enough.

Maybe not enough to vote Republican. But they could stay home on election day.