By Jesse Saunders
Photo Editor

The time when minority votes could be discounted and considered unimportant is long gone but candidates continue to underestimate their importance. In the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders has no chance of winning unless he can prove he isn’t only appealing to white voters. His strength among Muslim voters in Michigan is promising, but won’t guarantee him any wins over Hillary Clinton, who remains more popular among black and Hispanic voters.

Sanders, who actively worked alongside civil rights leaders in the 1960s, is having a variety of issues gaining traction among black voters, but the exact reason is hard to pinpoint. His campaign has often been accused of standing on the single issue of economic inequality, which while pertaining to every American, can seem to ignore racial inequality issues.

If Sanders has any chance of catching up to Clinton, he will need to amend these issues and create a more inclusive platform for the rest of his campaign. While his overall campaign seems to not draw in black voters, in the most recent primaries Sanders claimed 65 percent of the Hispanic vote and seemed to be capturing the black youth vote more than Clinton.

For the Republicans, minority voters’ importance won’t truly be shown until the general election. Mitt Romney only won 17 percent of non-white voters in 2012 and if the nominee does end up being Donald Trump, there’s little to no chance of the Republicans carrying any non-white voters.

Both black and Hispanic voters have been targeted by Trump’s own rhetoric and even more so by his followers, but he continues to dominate the Republican primary. In many ways, Trump’s nomination could spell the end of the Republican Party as it has been known for the last few decades and could potentially fire up minority voters.

Jesse Saunders is the president of the Democrats of Hofstra University.

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