Women of color drawn to Texas forum looking for a candidate connection
HOUSTON – Elizabeth Odunsi worries about her brothers and other black male family and friends. She fears that a chance encounter with police will end in tragedy.
The 34-year-old Houston resident, whose mother is from Nigeria, also worries about cousins who are Dreamers, young immigrants protected from deportation under the policy of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
For her, immigration and criminal justice, along with health care, are issues that strike on a personal level – and she wants to see a presidential contender who will go beyond lip service and buzz words. She wants action.
That’s why she came to Texas Southern University on Wednesday for an event billed as the first presidential candidate forum targeting issues that matter to women of color. The three-hour forum, which featured eight declared Democratic candidates, was sponsored by She the People and drew about 2,000 attendees from 28 states.
In front of a lively crowd, the presidential hopefuls – Sens. Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro – focused on housing and health care, criminal justice and voting rights, gentrification and climate change.
Sanders touted his long record of advocating against income inequality and mentioned marching with Martin Luther King Jr. (a response that elicited hisses from the audience).
Booker spoke of how climate change impacts communities of color. O’Rourke noted that his hometown of El Paso, Texas, is one of the safest cities in the country as he voiced support for immigrants and immigration.
Warren garnered standing ovations for her proposal to tackle the crisis of maternal mortality among African American women (by giving hospitals a bonus for reducing rates and fining them if they fail to do so) and for her standard response to almost every question: “I have a plan.”
Several of the candidates took swipes at the current White House resident.
Booker said President Donald Trump’s rhetoric has helped incite right-wing extremism, and Sanders condemned the president’s “racism, sexism and homophobia.”
The questions came from moderators and from audience members who reflected the diversity among women of color: a caregiver from Miami, a restaurant worker from New Orleans, a Native American activist and several undocumented immigrants.
After the forum, Odunsi, who supported O’Rourke during his Senate run, described Warren as the standout of the event because of her well-laid-out plans.
She was also impressed by Sanders, who vowed that his cabinet would reflect the diversity of the country, and by Harris, who noted the irony that many young black men served time for marijuana offenses yet are blocked from participating in the growing and lucrative legal marijuana industry.
“The candidates made me feel like there is hope for real change,” she said. “We aren’t lost yet.”