Media hailed 'most diverse' Democratic field in 2020 but mum on diversity of 2024 GOP hopefuls

The 2024 Republican primary field is shaping up to one of the most racially diverse in modern memory, but a media landscape that repeatedly touted the 2020 Democratic candidates as an American tapestry doesn't seem nearly as interested this time around.

A record 29 candidates joined the 2020 Democratic race throughout that election cycle, including seven racial minorities and one who was openly gay. The legacy media heralded what it deemed a historic presidential race simply by how diverse it was, although the ultimate victor for the nomination was then-77-year-old Joe Biden.

In January 2019, CNN was quick to hail the field "the most diverse in modern political history" back when there were only eight declared candidates. The Associated Press also jumped on the diversity bandwagon right out of the gate.

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"The early days of the Democratic primary campaign are highlighting the party’s diversity as it seeks a nominee who can build a coalition to take on President Donald Trump," the AP wrote in its article headlined, "Early 2020 Democratic field puts diversity in spotlight."

The next month, The New York Times ran the headline "Cory Booker Announces Presidential Bid, Joining Most Diverse Field Ever," writing how the senator was "embarking on a campaign to become the nation’s second [B]lack president in a Democratic primary field that is the most diverse in American history." 

NPR ran a story about how the White men running in the Democratic field had to "grapple with identity" while Vox hyped how "the most diverse field of Democratic presidential candidates ever is hiring diverse staff, too."

USA Today columnist Jill Lawrence urged readers to "Celebrate the diverse 2020 Democratic candidates and don't fret about 'electability.'"

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However, the media's tone turned pessimistic as the Democratic primary race unfolded. In October 2019, the Times published the headline, "Democrats Have the Most Racially Diverse Field Ever. The Top Tier Is All White." Washington Post columnist Philip Bump similarly complained, "The most diverse Democratic field in history seems poised to result in a [W]hite nominee." 

Fast-forward to the 2024 election cycle, and many of those same news organizations have gone quiet on the diversity of the growing GOP primary race. The 2024 Democratic field currently consists of Biden, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Marianne Williamson, who are all White and over 69 years old.

Leading up to June, four of the eight declared candidates were racial minorities; former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, both first-generation Indian-Americans, and conservative radio host Larry Elder and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who are both Black. 

With limited exceptions from the AP and Newsweek, there has been little to no ink dedicated to the "most diverse" field of Republican candidates.

Elder sarcastically mocked the "shocking" disparity of the media's coverage. 

"Several liberal reporters called me for comment when Tim Scott announced his candidacy. They asked: ‘You and Tim Scott are both Black Republicans, what distinguishes you from him?’" Elder told Fox News Digital. "My response? 'Did you reporters, in 2016, say to Trump, ‘You and Jeb Bush are both White Republicans, what distinguishes you from him?’ Their silence was deafening."

"No, to the liberal media, Elder and Scott are not two different individuals. Why, as Republicans, who are both Black, Elder and Scott are practically identical twins separated at birth! Yet another example of liberal media condescension and bigotry," he added.

Elder, who launched his campaign in April, previously launched a gubernatorial bid against Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in the September 2021 recall effort to oust him. Newsom wound up easily winning the race.

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Elder recalled how The New York Times wrote a "lengthy, negative article" about his gubernatorial bid that "never referred to my race" but the exact same issue of the paper "gushed" over Kathy Hochul being "the first female governor of New York." A columnist for The Los Angeles Times also memorably declared Elder the "Black face of white supremacy" during his 2021 gubernatorial bid.

"Isn’t it time the race and gender obsessed media discuss a candidate’s qualifications without emphasizing his or her race, ethnicity or gender?" Elder wondered. "My having an ‘R’ at the end of my name made my ‘firstness’ irrelevant. Hochul having a ‘D’ at the end of her name made her ‘firstness’ a cause for celebration."

Nikki Haley has faced similar attacks. Shortly after she launched her presidential bid in February, far-left writer Wajahat Ali said on MSNBC that she "uses her Brown skin to launder White supremacist talking points." MSNBC host Joy Reid also accused Haley of "trying to fit in" by converting to Christianity rather than embracing her Sikh background. 

Politico took aim at Haley over what it dubbed her "complicated racial dance" throughout her political career and her "fraught relationship with race," putting focus on how she listed her race as "White" on a voter registration card in 2001 (due to lack of race options provided) and how she has "shown a willingness to embrace some of the dog whistles deployed by the current Republican Party."

Then-CNN anchor Don Lemon famously landed himself in hot water for insisting the 51-year-old presidential hopeful "isn't in her prime" while objecting to her call for mandatory cognitive tests for politicians 75 and older, telling his female co-hosts and viewers to "Google it." 

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In 2022, far-left "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin ranted about the former U.N. ambassador, calling her use of the name a cynical effort to bury her Indian heritage since her real first name is Nimrata. Nikki is Haley's middle name and one she's gone by since childhood.

"There are some of us that can be chameleons and decide not to embrace our ethnicities so that we can pass." Notably, as was pointed out at the time by her colleagues, "Sunny" isn't Hostin's birth name, which is actually Asunción. She defended that apparent hypocrisy, saying "Americans can't pronounce 'Asunción' because of the under-education in our country."

"Nikki Haley always makes liberals lose their minds. They can't handle the idea of a strong, outspoken conservative woman. Too bad for them," Haley spokesman Ken Farnaso told Fox News Digital. 

"The View" didn't just go after Haley. After Tim Scott launched his campaign, Whoopi Goldberg suggested he has "Clarence Thomas syndrome" and called his decrying of victimhood a "dog whistle." Her White colleague Joy Behar said the Black senator "doesn't get" racism in America. Meanwhile, Hostin insisted in 2021 that Scott was "used" by the Republican Party when he offered the rebuttal to President Biden's first address to Congress. 

Scott campaign communications director Nathan Brand told Fox News Digital the media's overt double standard was a factor in accepting Monday's invitation to appear on the ABC daytime program to confront some of the "worst offenders" in the media directly. 

MSNBC's Reid has also repeatedly targeted Scott. In 2021, he called his presence among Republicans a "patina of diversity" and said his "audience" for his Biden response was "angry" "conservative White Republicans." In 2022, she likened the senator to a domesticated dog for not supporting the Supreme Court confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson.

"Uncle Tim" trended on Twitter among liberals in response to Scott's rebuttal to Biden, prompting minimal outrage from the media. 

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In 2021, then-CNN host Don Lemon shrugged off the slur "Oreo" that was used against Scott as merely "name calling" and although he didn't encourage others to use the term, he offered a defense of it, telling viewers, "I'm going to be honest, maybe if you're sitting around the kitchen table and you're Black and you're with other Black people, they may say the same thing. Like, 'what is wrong with this you know what,' the term that he used. But I don't think it should be used publicly."

The Washington Post raised eyebrows with its 2021 fact-check questioning Scott's family history, specifically his repeated "from cotton to Congress" narrative, suggesting there's more nuance to his claim that his father picked cotton because his ancestors had owned farmland.

The disparity between how the media has treated minority Republicans versus minority Democrats and its selective spotlight on diversity hasn't fazed Vivek Ramaswamy, which he called "hilarious."

"It's a hilarious double standard for the media not to, but I also don't want to see the Republican Party tout [it], it's why I don't particularly tout it either," Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. "We're more than our different shades of Melanin and the other side obsesses over it… I don't think that any of us should be evaluated based on the color of our skin but should be evaluated based on the content of our vision and ability to execute it." 

"I don't want to see the Republican Party play the superficial game of saying, ‘See how diverse we are.’ We should just be who we are. And I think that that's actually the way to go."

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The "Woke, Inc." author would rather turn the focus on the "diversity of perspectives" he and his fellow GOP rivals have instead of examining their "skin-deep diversity." 

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"That's the kind of diversity that we should be talking about in our party… there are a diversity of viewpoints. And this is a moment for defining what the Republican Party stands for," Ramaswamy said. "And of the reason the Democratic Party stands for nothing more than the appearance of differences is that's all they obsess over. And so let's be more than the party that just obsesses over the skin-deep diversity ourselves and actually talk about the diversity of differences of viewpoints we have in this primary."