Nearly every major declared and potential Democratic candidate called for Northam’s resignation after disclosure of the photo, which shows one person in blackface and another hooded in white Klan regalia.
A racist photo tied to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam spurred the first major test for how Democratic presidential hopefuls will address racial tensions that have polarized American life.
Nearly every major declared and potential Democratic candidate called for Northam’s resignation after disclosure of the photo, which shows one person in blackface and another hooded in white Klan regalia.
Their reactions came before Northam, 59, who is white, said during a news conference Saturday that he was not in the photo on his page of the 1984 yearbook. He acknowledged using blackface when he dressed as pop icon Michael Jackson for a dance contest, also in 1984.
That leaves Democrats running for president or considering bids to navigate an explosive and embarrassing story as they mount campaigns intended to serve as a contrast with racial divisions that have intensified under the presidency of Donald Trump.
“The candidates were right on this, but this one was easy; the questions and issues on race will only get harder,” said Symone Sanders, one of the Democratic Party’s most visible black strategists and an aide to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
Northam’s refusal to step down, Sanders added, threatens to “bring down the Democratic ecosystem” when candidates already face challenges explaining their own records on racially fraught matters. “How do you tell black, brown and young disillusioned voters who didn’t vote in 2016 to come out and take on Donald Trump and take America with this in the party?” she said. “It’s a real concern.”
That means more potential pitfalls for candidates as varied as California Sen. Kamala Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, and former Vice President Joe Biden, a white man who prides himself on his working-class heritage.
Harris touts her record as a prosecutor but faces critiques from the left for her role in a system that has for decades disproportionately imprisoned young men of color. Biden, a longtime senator before he was President Barack Obama’s political partner, recently expressed regret for supporting a 1994 crime bill that toughened sentencing laws.
