Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego decried that there may be only white candidates on the December Democratic debate stage.
Gallego called it a “problem” that only white candidates have qualified for the upcoming debate in the wake of Sen. Kamala Harris’s decision to drop out of the race. During an interview on CNN, Gallego said it “hurt” that candidates like Cory Booker and Julian Castro have not qualified for the debate.
“These campaigns that actually are extremely well staffed with very diverse staff and many have great experience and history with different communities,” said Gallego. “It does hurt though not to see some very well-qualified people of color up there.”
He noted that Booker was a senator, a former mayor, and a Rhodes scholar while Castro was President Barack Obama’s Housing and Urban Development secretary. Gallego claimed that the two were not given as much thought as white candidates like Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett, who has not qualified for the December debate.
“They should be given consideration as much, just like we have other people, including Senator Bennett, who is a sitting U.S. Senator right now. The fact that they’re not is a problem,” said Gallego.
Gallego refused to blame the Democratic National Committee for the lack of diversity on the debate stage but did say it was an “unintended consequence” of the committee’s attempt to correct the nomination system that was highly criticized in 2016.
“I don’t blame the DNC,” he explained. “I think they were trying to come up with the best system to fix what happened in 2016. But this is one of those unintended consequences, unfortunately.”
Booker and Castro are both long shots for qualifying for the debate as the Dec. 12 deadline approaches. Castro has obtained none of the qualifying metrics while Booker has enough donors but has none of the four qualified polls needed to participate.
Two other nonwhite candidates, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang, who both only need one more poll to make the debates, are far closer to qualifying.
Gallego, 40, has battled President Trump over his immigration policy and his demands for a border wall in the congressman’s home state of Arizona.
