Joe Biden and Kamala Harris brace for tonight’s debate – live updates | US news

And once the topic of black America finally came up, the candidates rushed to discuss their respective policy proposals that they hoped would signal their seriousness about racial equality, from the funding of black colleges to the study of reparations.

But black voters know that campaign promises rarely materialize once a candidate becomes president, so one’s reputation, trustworthiness, and passion tend to be what wins black support. On this score, the candidates were who we thought they were. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were the only two on stage who entered the evening with observable black support in their coalition, and it will remain that way after tonight.