A portion of the Democratic Party’s elite has weaponized racial politics against its foes, one of which is Vermont’s Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who is a likely 2020 Democratic contender. These criticisms are mostly about Sanders’s ethnic background, not any of his views, ideas, or record. In other words, they are prejudiced criticisms.

But the impact of this prejudiced criticism appears limited. The Monmouth poll out this week shows that Sanders is behind only former Vice President Joe Biden with respect to support from minority voters. He is leading all of the rest of the Democratic candidates.

In fact, California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris’s standing in the poll seems to be higher among white voters than nonwhite voters.

It would be preferable for prejudice to play no role in our politics, but as long as people continue to weaponize candidates’ race against them, they could at least stick to the facts. Sanders is actually fairly popular with nonwhite voters.