Sharpton changed up his approach to each potential candidate, asking Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego about the fight to release the “Epstein files” while giving New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker the stage for an uninterrupted speech.

“We have work to do when Black unemployment rates are skyrocketing and the man who [is] in the office right now and said, “Black people, what do you have to lose?’” Booker said. “We now know: It’s jobs.”

Each Democrat got a friendly hearing from NAN members who represented around 100 chapters of the group Sharpton founded 35 years ago — part of his journey from New York media to national political power.

They got the warmest reception when they defended racial equity policies that were being ripped out of the federal government and challenged in court by the Trump Justice Department.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro celebrated that his state “continue[s] to have an office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” He touted the $60 million that Pennsylvania has earmarked for “small diverse businesses” and the “billions” his state has pushed out to historically disadvantaged school districts.

“We believe diversity is our strength,” he said, not a “weakness, as Donald Trump thinks.” When he recounted how Philadelphia fought to keep historic markers “telling our actual history, the story of slavery,” Shapiro got more applause.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., showered the civil rights movement with praise, crediting it for progressive ideas like Medicare for All. Democrats could do their part for the movement, he said, by using their power to reverse the anti-DEI trend, setting a goal of “100,000 Black Americans a year” in tech jobs.

“You do realize that in 2026, we’re going to have an African-American speaker of the House, Hakeem Jeffries?” Khanna said, conveying his message to corporations that were backing off racial equity policies under Trump.

“You do realize that when you look at all of the committees, whether it’s Maxine Waters or Bobby Scott or Bennie Thompson, you’re going to have many African-Americans from the South leading those committees?”