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Biden, Booker Among Presidential Candidates Who Address Urban League Conference In Indy

David Wolfe Bender
/
WFYI News

Some of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates laid out, briefly, their plans to help end systemic racism in speeches at the National Urban League conference Thursday.

Ten candidates are set to address the conference in Indianapolis this week.

Urban League President Marc Morial has said he’s interested in not just hearing the candidates make campaign promises but also talk about their records. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) emphasized that.

“I will dismantle a system of mass incarceration," Booker says. "You can believe me because it’s the work that I’ve been doing the past two decades of my life.”

All the candidates addressed issues of voter suppression and Russian interference in elections, including former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I’ve been making this argument for a long time: voter registration should be automatic, automatic upon turning 18,” Biden says.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also spoke.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.