Party leaders are placing an emphasis on diversity as they announce more speakers for the Democratic National Convention next week.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, will speak on Monday evening, the first night of the gathering in Philadelphia.
Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Judy Chu and members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and LGBT rights activist Sarah McBride, who will also be the first transgender speaker to address a major party convention, will speak over the course of the week.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the women of the House, and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and the Democratic women of the Senate will also take the stage Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
“You’ll see the kind of diversity that is not reflected here at the Republican National Convention,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the party, said last week.
Wasserman Schultz will have a diminished role at the convention and announced Sunday she would resign her post as Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairwoman at its conclusion.
They join the headline speakers, which include first lady Michelle Obama, President Obama, Vice President Biden and former President Bill Clinton.
The Republican National Convention last week was criticized for its lack of diversity. A Politico analysis found that of the 71 prime-time speakers, 80 percent were white. Only seven were black and three were Latino.