{"id":21283,"date":"2026-04-11T08:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/21283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T08:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:35:12","slug":"democrats-embrace-dei-as-american-values-at-national-action-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/21283\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats embrace DEI as ‘American values’ at National Action Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 Ever since President Donald Trump started purging diversity initiatives<\/a> last year, the letters \u201cDEI\u201d have faded from corporate boardrooms and Democratic stump speeches.<\/p>\n

But that wasn’t the case for the past few days at the annual National Action Network conference<\/a> in New York, where Democratic politicians and potential presidential candidates repeatedly made the case for diversity, equity and inclusion policies that seemed to have fallen out of favor. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the high ground on this issue,\u201d House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared to a packed audience of Black activists. He criticized Republicans as \u201cextremists\u201d who \u201care trying to do an all-out assault on civil rights, on voting rights, certainly on diversity, equity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not trying to celebrate merit, they\u2019re trying to elevate mediocrity,\u201d Jeffries contended. \u201cThey want to suggest that diversity, equity and inclusion are foreign values. They\u2019re not foreign values, they\u2019re American values.\u201d<\/p>\n

DEI initiatives became widespread in workplaces, colleges and government agencies after Black Lives Matter protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.<\/p>\n

But Republican leaders, including Trump, have argued that DEI programs are divisive and discriminate against white people.<\/p>\n

On his first day in office, Trump signed executive orders banning \u201cillegal DEI\u201d throughout the federal government. A March order went further by mandating that any companies that work with the federal government must also comply with the administration\u2019s anti-DEI platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended DEI in America,\u201d Trump said in his State of the Union address<\/a> in February. <\/p>\n

Democrats had mixed and at times muted responses to the administration\u2019s anti-DEI crusade over the last year, with some in the party blaming a focus on diversity and identity as a reason why the party alienated many voters across racial and socioeconomic lines.<\/p>\n

But some Democrats discussed as potential White House contenders are promoting DEI policies.<\/p>\n

The rhetorical shift also reflects the party\u2019s efforts to court and energize Black voters, who often view attacks on DEI as linked to broader opposition to civil rights and economic justice.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro leaned in during his appearance on the first day of the National Action Network.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe diversity is our strength in the Commonwealth,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe continue to have an Office of Diversity and Equity and Inclusion when other states have shuttered them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the nation’s only sitting Black governor, touted that his state had \u201cunapologetically\u201d responded to the rollback of DEI policies in Washington by creating state offices focused on supporting minority businesses and social mobility while combating racial inequality. He offered his state as a model for equitable policymaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing what the policies and the position are when it comes to belief in diversity from this federal administration,\u201d Moore later told The Associated Press. \u201cI actually think the future of how we should think about it should be seen in the present, of how places like Maryland are actually moving in this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his remarks, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker highlighted that he\u2019d directed his state to \u201cset aside a whole bunch of that money to address inequities that have plagued the Black community over so many years\u201d and defended Illinois\u2019 policies meant to reduce socioeconomic and racial inequality.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who will address the conference Saturday, is expected to highlight his commitment to diversity despite political backlash, according to political adviser Eric Hyers.<\/p>\n

Beshear, who leads a state Trump last carried by more than 30 points, vetoed what he described as a hateful bill from his Republican-controlled legislature last year that would have banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs from public universities. The legislature overrode the veto days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never wavered even when there was a post-2024 backlash,\u201d Hyers said of Beshear. \u201cHe believes in his core that diversity is a strength, not a weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rev. Al Sharpton, who founded and hosts the conference, told The Associated Press he was looking for 2028 contenders to show \u201cthat what they\u2019re campaigning on is something that addresses the race gap in the country, specifically, not just generalizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and influential former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, warned that leaders in either party who do not support DEI may oppose core American values.<\/p>\n

\u201cDEI stands for \u2018diversity, equity and inclusion.\u2019 Who, in search for a more perfect union, would shy away from diversity equity and inclusion? If you\u2019re against those things, you are against democracy,\u201d he told the AP.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 Ever since President Donald Trump started purging diversity initiatives last year, the letters \u201cDEI\u201d have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[11102,7183,12,15447,15446,485,13611,15448,7178,51,1194,8024],"class_list":{"0":"post-21283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hakeem-jeffries","8":"tag-al-sharpton","9":"tag-andy-beshear","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-eric-hyers","12":"tag-george-floyd","13":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","14":"tag-j-b-pritzker","15":"tag-james-clyburn","16":"tag-josh-shapiro","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-washington-news","19":"tag-wes-moore"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116385161050930306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}