The Note: Issues of gender and race dominate Democratic primary

Lingering discomfort over who they are will follow them into voting season.

By
Rick Klein
 and
MaryAlice Parks
January 17, 2020, 6:04 AM ET
6 min read

The TAKE with Rick Klein

President Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate begins in earnest Tuesday.

The Democratic presidential contenders, meanwhile, are arguing over who they are, what they say about it, and what that may say about them.

The two leading progressives are at odds about a conversation where one of them is accusing the other of saying a woman can't win the presidency. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders left Washington Thursday without having spoken about their open-mic post-debate exchange, according to both camps.

Out on the trail this holiday weekend, an all-white top tier of candidates will appear at forums and events around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, explaining why each of them can appeal to a diversifying Democratic electorate.

The days before the Senate trial starts on Tuesday will be, perhaps, the last stretch before the caucuses where all the major candidates will be spending uninterrupted time on the campaign trail.

They'd rather be there than in Washington. But lingering discomfort over who they are -- and who they're not -- will follow them into the voting season.

The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks

A week with so much focus on the electability of women will be capped off with a number of women's marches across the country.

While the national board of the original Women's March organization has had a number of ups and downs, resignations and negative headlines over the years, state and local city chapters -- and even off-shoot organizations -- have kept up momentum and marches are scheduled across the country.

In 2017, hundreds of thousands of women marched on the nation's capital, and millions overall took part in what was the largest day of protest in the country's history. The unprecedented number of female candidates in 2018 was possible, in no small part, because of the energy, enthusiasm and support offered from those first events.

And now that's translating into governing.

Virginia's first-ever female speaker of the House of Delegates presided over the state's approval of the Equal Rights Amendment this week, making Virginia the 38th state to ratify the proposed change the U.S. Constitution.

The TIP with Kendall Karson and Lissette Rodriguez

Before the Democratic field faces the all-important Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest slated for Feb. 3, some voters in non-early states will begin to cast ballots Friday through early voting -- several weeks prior to their state's primary election day.

Among the first states to begin in-person early voting is Minnesota, a Super Tuesday state that is also home to Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The presidential contender has been touting her ability to win in "fly-over country" on the trail as she seeks to set herself apart in a still deep field. She has thousands of volunteers signed up, a team of organizers led by an organizing director "in every part of Minnesota," more than 63,000 in-state donors, and more than 250,000 phone calls made across the state.

Klobuchar will host an early voting kick-off rally in Minneapolis on Friday, alongside some top Democrats in the state, taking advantage of the opportunity to lock up support in the 2020 battleground state.

While she might be taking her campaign back to Iowa on Saturday in the hopes of a strong finish there that will give her the staying power to last through Super Tuesday, Minnesota's early voting could provide some of the earliest insights into voter engagement in a highly-anticipated election year.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Friday morning's episode features ABC News Senior National correspondent Terry Moran, who explains how senators are approaching their jobs as jurors as President Donald Trump's impeachment trial begins amid new evidence from Lev Parnas, an associate of the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast. In the second installment of The Primaries Project, FiveThirtyEight examines the consequences of the post-1968 Democratic National Committee reforms, which created a candidate selection system more open to public input than ever before. https://apple.co/23r5y7w

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

  • President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence greet the Louisiana State University football team at the White House at 11 a.m. Trump then travels to Palm Beach, Florida, where he holds a roundtable with supporters at 6:30 p.m. and delivers remarks at a dinner at 7 p.m.
  • Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., campaign in Iowa through the holiday weekend.
  • Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., campaigns in New Hampshire on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He campaigns in Iowa on Monday.
  • Former Vice President Joe Biden campaigns in Iowa on Friday and Saturday. He then heads to South Carolina for several stops on Sunday and Monday morning before returning to Iowa Monday afternoon for a forum.
  • Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg campaigns in California on Friday and Saturday morning. He attends a Saturday afternoon campaign event in Salt Lake City and then heads to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he has an event Sunday afternoon.
  • Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg attends a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Friday and then heads to Iowa, where he will campaign on Saturday and Monday.
  • Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, campaigns in New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday.
  • Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., makes nine campaign stops in Minnesota on Friday. She then heads to Iowa, where she will campaign through Monday.
  • Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick campaigns in Nevada on Friday and in South Carolina on Sunday.
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., campaigns in New Hampshire on Saturday and Sunday. He's in South Carolina on Monday.
  • Tom Steyer is in North Carolina on Friday and Saturday morning. He then heads to South Carolina, where he will campaign through Monday.
  • Andrew Yang takes his bus tour through Iowa all Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
  • Attending the Citizens United Presidential Forum in Des Moines on Sunday: Klobuchar, Warren and Patrick.
  • Attending the 2020 Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum on in Des Moines on Monday: Bennet, Biden, Buttigieg, Delaney, Klobuchar, Patrick, Sanders, Warren and Yang.
  • Sunday on ABC's "This Week": George Stephanopoulos speaks exclusively with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead House Impeachment Manager in the trial of President Trump. And the Powerhouse Roundtable discusses a historic week in politics, with ABC News Political Analyst Matthew Dowd, former Chicago Mayor and ABC News Contributor Rahm Emanuel, Republican Strategist and ABC News Contributor Sara Fagen, and former DNC Chair and Fox News Contributor Donna Brazile.
  • Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, wife of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., appears on ABC's "The View" on Monday.

    • Download the ABC News app and select "The Note" as an item of interest to receive the day's sharpest political analysis.

    The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in politics. Please check back Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, for the latest.