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The 'Black Lives Matter' movement, largely led by young grassroots organizers who profess a non-partisan view, has proved to be a stumbling block for candidates on both sides. Both O'Malley and his Democratic rival Bernie Sanders were criticized for their responses to activists' demonstrations, declining to advocate specifically for Black Lives Matter, choosing the more inclusive call of \"All Lives Matter.\"

It is a slogan viewed by activists as deeply out of touch and a view that overlooks the crux of their call to social equality and an end to the systematic prejudice they say African-Americans face in the eyes of the justice system.

Both quickly scrambled to amend his remarks; O'Malley appearing on a black talk show to say he made a mistake, Sanders forcefully condemning Bland's arrest, calling it \"painful and dreadful\".

On Thursday, Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton tried to overcome her own similar stumbles while speaking to a black church in South Carolina, twice invoking the \"Black Lives Matter\" slogan and calling Bland's death \"heartbreaking\".

\"And that’s why I think it is essential that we all stand up and say loudly and clearly, ‘Yes, black lives matter.’ And we all have a responsibility to face these hard truths of race and justice honestly and directly,” Clinton said to cheers during a campaign stop at the Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia, South Carolina.

Clinton was criticized last month for saying “all lives matter” at an event at a historic black church close to Ferguson, Missouri, where protesters last year widely used the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”

Bush has said in the past that he will win this campaign by going to places \"that haven't seen a Republican in a very long time\", declaring to be able to rally the support of Latinos and African-Americans, groups that have traditionally eluded the GOP.

ABC News' Shushannah Walshe contributed to this report.

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