Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hiromichi]

What does "transcends their candidacies" mean in the following?

After staying on the sidelines in the first year of the campaign, race and to a lesser extent gender have burst into the forefront of the Democratic presidential contest, thrusting Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton into the middle of a sharp-edged social and political debate that transcends their candidacies.
_________________
Hiromichi

[pugachevV]

You can look it up in your dictionary - it means rise above.

[hiromichi]

Thank you. I thought it might have more meaning than just rise up in New York Times.
_________________
Hiromichi