Democrats Are Pushing More Diverse Candidates. Behind The Scenes, Not So Much.

People for the American Way interns prepare information packets on July 6, 2005, at the organization's "action center" in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images For the past year, Carol McDonald has been trying out a new way of introducing herself when she speaks in public. “You need to be able bring your own car, or move across the country, not have family or child care obligations, have someplace to stay, be able to work twice the normal work week, be able to pay for your own cell phone, pay for your own insurance or be on your parents’ plan,” said Ihaab Syed, the secretary for the Campaign Workers Guild, a newly formed union for campaign staff. “I can’t tell you how many times people tried to push me toward raising ‘Asian money,’ saying, ‘You’d be a natural,’” said Raghu Devaguptapu, a partner at Left Hook, a Democratic strategy firm. Communications strategist Tonia Bui was working for a candidate in Washington state when the staffer in charge of outreach said the campaign didn’t need to invest in Asian-American outreach, because “they all speak English, they’re all assimilated.” In fact, there were plenty of people in the area who didn’t speak English — or who did speak English but weren’t going to respond to ads and messaging created for white people. “I’m not aware of a single campaign that has implemented the Rooney rule,” Lundy said, referring to the National Football League’s practice of interviewing at least one minority candidate for senior job openings.