Clinton, Sanders, O’Malley tackle minority issues at Iowa Brown & Black Forum

Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Martin O’Malley faced questions that affect the country’s growing minority population at the Iowa Brown & Black Forum in Des Moines Monday night.

The three Democratic rivals took the stage separately and faced questions alone.

Issues of race and ethnicity have dominated this campaign season, with GOP candidate Donald Trump suggesting Mexican immigrants are criminals and that all Muslims should be barred from entering the country. Clinton and Sanders both have been protested by the Black Lives Matter movement, which has sought to push them to the left on criminal justice reform and other issues following the deaths of young minority men in confrontations with police. Clinton also faced criticism for heavy-handed efforts on social media to reach out to young minority voters, including changing her Twitter avatar to a Kwanzaa candleholder.

Democratic Iowans, whose caucuses are just a few weeks away, slightly favor Clinton over the more liberal Sanders in recent polling.

Univision’s Jorge Ramos — who became a political football when Trump threw him out of a press conference for questioning his immigration comments last year — as well as Alicia Menendez, Akilah Hughes, and New York Magazine’s Rembert Browne, moderated the discussion, which will air on Fusion.

The event, which began in 1984, is billed as the oldest forum that presses presidential candidates to address issues that affect the nation’s growing multicultural population.

The forum began at 8:00 p.m. ET.