If there were ever any doubt about where the overwhelming majority of Democratic 2020 presidential candidates stand on the issue of slavery reparations, this week’s National Action Network (NAN) conference cleared it up.
Virtually every presidential contender who spoke at Al Sharpton’s event was asked by the civil rights activist if they support slavery reparations. To a person, their answer was a resounding yes.
Specifically, Sharpton wanted to know if they support H.R. 40, a bill originally introduced by former Democratic Michigan Rep. John Conyers in 1989 and reintroduced by Democratic Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee this year that would create a “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans to examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.” (RELATED: 2020 Democrats Support Slavery Reparations: What Does This Mean?)
Contenders who answered Sharpton’s question in the affirmative included former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, New York Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Others also expressed their support of the concept either during their speeches at the event or previously.
Here’s a summary of where each candidate stands on slavery reparations thus far:
Beto O’Rourke
“I had a chance to speak with and just listen to and learn from Brian Stevenson in Montgomery, Alabama and learn from his work on working with the community to build a memorial to justice and to peace and he said ‘foundational to reparations is the word ‘repair.’ Foundational to repair is the truth,’” O’Rourke told Sharpton on Wednesday.
Kamala Harris
The California senator said in February she supported some form of reparations. “We have got to recognize, back to that earlier point, people aren’t starting out on the same base in terms of their ability to succeed,” she told “The Breakfast Club” radio show. “So we have got to recognize that and give people a lift up.”
“When I am elected president, I will sign that bill,” she said Friday, referring to H.R. 40.