Cheap shot: A champion who looks like whom?

Advanced trolling, Times-style:

Photo by Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist, NYT.

“The identity politics people in the party want a champion who looks like him to mitigate accusations of racism,” said Ben Domenech, a conservative writer. “And the classical conservatives look at him and say, ‘This is somebody who can sell our ideas to the public.’”

What exactly does he look like, Ben? How exactly does that mitigate accusations of racism? "Like, we're so down with a candidate of an exotic race, as long as we can't tell."