There are currently 21 candidates running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Most of them will probably not make it through to the end of the primaries. But while they are traveling, holding press conferences, doing town halls, and sitting for interviews, one of my key interests has been hearing what—if anything—they have to say about the ongoing disaster in Puerto Rico.
Here’s the current candidate lineup (which is subject to change) at the interactive New York Times site.
(Note: When I wrote this piece, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado had not thrown his hat into the ring.)
Frankly, I don’t care which Democrat you support in the race. I do care about seeing them use the media and the voting public’s attention to shine a spotlight on Puerto Rico, where more than one-half of the streetlights still don’t work, and tens of thousands of people are still living under blue tarp roofs.
You can put your donations to your favorite candidate to work by letting them know that you want to hear them add Puerto Rico to their stump speeches and interviews.
This isn’t about them getting the Puerto Rican vote, though there will be a Democratic primary there on June 7, 2020. This isn’t about competing for the votes of the approximately 3.8 million Puerto Rican voters living here on the mainland.
This is about another disaster in the making, and the damage will be worse than Hurricanes Irma and Maria combined.
I recently wrote about this in “Cutting off Puerto Rico's Medicaid is not a 'fiscal cliff.' It will push people off a cliff—to die”:
More than 1 million Puerto Ricans are already seeing cuts to food stamp benefits. Democrats’ fight being waged with Trump and McConnell over disaster aid funding has not succeeded.
I’ve read articles with headlines that talk of the “Medicaid fiscal cliff” for Puerto Rico—which don’t convey the severity of the disaster in the making. There are going to be a lot of Puerto Ricans who will be doomed to die if they lose both medical treatment and the life-sustaining drugs they need.
That “fiscal cliff” is the cutoff of additional money that increased coverage on the island until September 2019. When the money goes, at least 900,000 people will lose coverage.
This is not simply a matter of “Oh well, they will have to flee the island and move to the mainland.”
It is not just “Oh well, they should become a state,” as if the status issue is going to be resolved any time soon.
And though some Democratic presidential candidates have mentioned Puerto Rico, or talked of future plans, those words don’t translate into medicine and treatment, while Trump continues to use PR as a punching bag to rile up his base.
The largest natural disaster in recent U.S. history took place on the island. We know there were more than 3,000 deaths of U.S. citizens there. We also know that come September, those numbers will look puny if more than 900,000 people lose their Medicaid coverage.
Donald Trump has coldly and callously abandoned Puerto Rico. His sneers and lies about the island seem to make his rabid base happy.
Frankly, I don’t give a damn about Trump or his bigoted base, but I do care about “our team.” Some of the members of our team are falling down on the job by not saying enough.
This tweet has gone out to all the candidates, and I am looking forward to seeing the responses:
Where I differ is that I do not expect candidates to have a full-fledged plan at the moment, considering the fact that Democrats have no power to get anything through the Senate and signed by Trump.
Some of the candidates are not even in the Senate or the House. However, they all have mouths—and they all need to speak out. That’s why I have “bully pulpit” in the headline.
A media coverage reminder:
There are still far too many folks here on the mainland, Democrats included, who think of Puerto Ricans as “the other.” Every day I respond to comments on social media about the fact that “Puerto Ricans don’t pay federal taxes”—which is a lie. Nowhere do we give disaster aid in proportion to how much a state contributes to the federal coffers. (FYI: Puerto Rico contributes about the same amount each year as Vermont and Wyoming)
It should not be left to Puerto Rican elected officials here on the mainland, like Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, to carry the bulk of the advocacy work on their shoulders. Black, white, Latinx, Asian or Native American: We are all on this ship together.
The Washington Post has a comparison of all the candidates’ stances on the issues posted to social media during the month of March. There is a section on Puerto Rico.
I’m listing the candidates who are running, in alphabetical order below, with a roundup of their tweets and what I can find about their public statements on Puerto Rico (mostly from Twitter) and how well (or not) they are doing on speaking up.
I’ve made a note of their positions on statehood since the status question is contentious, and Puerto Rican political parties on the island are organized around that issue. For example, Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan who is running for governor, is vehemently anti-statehood. Democratic Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is pro-statehood, but aligns himself with Republicans. The non-voting elected representative to Congress from Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González, is a Republican and pro-statehood.
Joseph R. Biden Jr
I found little, other than a statement he made in a speech last year mocking Trump and a comment he made about statehood:
“I have always found Puerto Rico's current political status as something very bizarre. My word of advice to you, and all Puerto Ricans, is that you continue to fight hard until you reach your goal of equality, and we shall act," Biden stated before taking one more question and finally disappearing through a hallway surrounded by the Secret Service.”
Cory Booker
From his January 2018 press release titled “Booker Travels to Puerto Rico”:
In September 2017, one week after Hurricane Maria, Booker spoke out on the Senate floor on the need to address the impending humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. Booker also joined his colleagues and sent a letter urging President Trump to act quickly to address the catastrophic damage in Puerto Rico. In October 2017, Booker cosponsored a bill to eliminate Puerto Rico’s cap on Medicaid funding and joined in pressing FEMA to immediately greenlight federal funds for Puerto Rico to rebuild.In November, Booker sent a letter pushing the Centers for Disease Control to deploy additional manpower to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.In December of last year Booker urged Senate leadership to bolster Medicaid programs in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as part of a disaster relief package.
Pete Buttigieg
Julián Castro
Castro kicked off his campaign in Puerto Rico.
John Delaney
Couldn’t find anything, other than the fact that he supports statehood for Puerto Rico.
Tulsi Gabbard
Supports statehood:
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kamala Harris
John Hickenlooper
I found nothing.
Jay Inslee
I found nothing.
Amy Klobuchar
Wayne Messam
Supports statehood:
Seth Moulton
Supports statehood:
Beto O’Rourke
Supports statehood:
Tim Ryan
Bernie Sanders
Eric Swalwell
Elizabeth Warren
Marianne Williamson
Andrew Yang
Is for statehood:
So this is a brief look at the current candidates and where they stand on Puerto Rico. Booker, Castro, Harris, Sanders, and Warren have had the most to say.
I am hoping that the upcoming debates will feature questions about Puerto Rico, especially since the first debates, to be hosted by MSNBC and NBC on June 26 and 27, are taking place in Miami and will also be broadcast on the Spanish-language network Telemundo.
I’m aware that our candidates have a lot of issues to juggle including climate change, economic and social injustice, voting rights, education, gun control, war, international affairs, and so on. But given the nature of the injustice that continues for Puerto Rico, it should be part of the main course, and not a side dish.
