The background:
"post modernism," "Identity politics" and "Intersectionality" Oh and the new, infantalized USA.
It means a pyramid of increasing claims for victimhood, due to membership in the various classes of oppression.
Always the oppressor is white males.
The classes, black, Hispanic, people of color, womn, women of color, homosexuals, immigrants, poor, foreigners, disabled (except veterans), etc.
The panels, and eventual primaries, are to select from the menu the best representatives, of this new dumbed down, infantalized societ.
"Who is the Wokest" of them all.
Add the dimension, of our self-selecting silos of media, social media, etc.
Strategically they don't want to risk peaking too soon, lest they become targets.