“On Monday [Dec. 16], he locked up the support of the entire Coachella [California] City Council — a show of strength in the [98% Hispanic] working-class city of 45,000 with a rich history of immigration and farmworker activism. Some Coachella residents who attended the rally said they frequently feel overlooked by national political candidates. Until Sanders' visit, no president or presidential candidate had visited Coachella since John F. Kennedy spoke at Coachella Valley High School in 1961.”—Desert Sun
“This site won’t be as effective as I want it to be until our audience numbers resemble those of the liberal coalition, and we’re far from those. ... [Sanders’s] movement’s challenges are the same as mine, and the solutions aren’t easy. But they are worth pursuing if we truly want to build something that will someday deliver Sanders-style politics to the White House and—this is critical—every office below it.”—Daily Kos Founder Markos Moulitsas, March 2, 2016
Bottom line, no white-dominated liberal movement will succeed when 40 percent of Democrats are people of color. And people of color will be reluctant to join a movement led by little-known whites. History has made us justifiably suspicious of the Great White Savior. So building from the ground up, with full inclusion of people of color in leadership, will allow for a broad-based coalition that can have the numbers to topple the system. …
So why am I harping on this? Because I want to build an effective movement, and the Sanders campaign didn’t prove to be an effective vehicle for it. Yet the goal is one worth pursuing, so we need that movement.
Sanders’ supporters are a critical component of that broad-based movement, so I am desperate for them to see this failing so that we can avoid it next time. Yes, desperate. ...
As many of you well know, I’ve been just as critical about the diversity numbers here at Daily Kos. This site won’t be as effective as I want it to be until our audience numbers resemble those of the liberal coalition, and we’re far from those. All the criticism above, I’ve directed at myself. It is my biggest failing leading this site over the last 14 years, and one I am working hard to rectify.
All I ask is that same level of introspection and understanding about what Sanders has built, and how it has failed to genuinely become a movement. His movement’s challenges are the same as mine, and the solutions aren’t easy. But they are worth pursuing if we truly want to build something that will someday deliver Sanders-style politics to the White House and—this is critical—every office below it.
“According to the new [Dec. 16, A+ rated Marist] poll, Sanders leads the Democratic presidential field among non-white voters (29% over Biden's 26%), voters under the age of 45 (37% to Warren's 18% and Biden's 14%), and progressives (29% to Warren's 23% and Biden's 17%).”—Common Dreams
Bolstered by strong support from people of color and younger voters, Sen. Bernie Sanders is in a close second place behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary race, according to a new national poll published Monday morning.
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey (pdf) found that Biden is leading the race at 24% support, followed by Sanders at 22%, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 17%, and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 13%. No other Democratic presidential candidate broke the 10% mark.
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According to the new poll, Sanders leads the Democratic presidential field among non-white voters (29% over Biden's 26%), voters under the age of 45 (37% to Warren's 18% and Biden's 14%), and progressives (29% to Warren's 23% and Biden's 17%).
The Vermont senator's lead among people of color "might be because of Sanders' strength with younger voters of color and Latinos," NPR reported Monday.
“Elizabeth Alcantar Loza, the vice mayor of Cudahy, Calif., explained how Sanders inspired her to run for office for the first time. …Kingsburg, Calif., City Councilwoman Jewel Hurtado took the stage there too, explaining that Sanders was the influence for her upstart run for office just last year at age 20.” —Vice
Elizabeth Alcantar Loza, the vice mayor of Cudahy, Calif., explained how Sanders inspired her to run for office for the first time. In Fresno the day before, student organizer Rosalie Baptista, invited the crowd to a student organizing meeting. Kingsburg, Calif., City Councilwoman Jewel Hurtado took the stage there too, explaining that Sanders was the influence for her upstart run for office just last year at age 20.
Hurtado, who joked that she’s the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Central Valley, told VICE News in an interview after the rally that when it comes to the Latino vote, she and her fellow Berniecrats are ready to turn it out.
“We won big in 2018 thanks to unprecedented support from women and people of color.”—Markos Moulitsas
We won big in 2018 thanks to unprecedented support from women and people of color. …
The energy in the party is certainly coming from those groups. Most of the new Resistance groups are run by women, #BlackLivesMatter and the #MeToo movements have become cultural phenomenons.
“Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) presidential campaign said Tuesday [Mar. 19] that women now make up 70 percent of its national leadership team.”—Seven Days
One of Sanders' first hires was campaign manager Faiz Shakir, who has been described as the first Muslim American to hold such a position on a major presidential campaign.
Among the women holding top jobs with Bernie 2020 are deputy campaign manager René Spellman, political director Analilia Mejia, deputy political director Sarah Badawi, national organizing director Claire Sandberg, senior policy adviser Heather Gautney and digital fundraising director Robin Curran.
The leaders of the campaign's press shop are also mostly women. They include communications director Arianna Jones, deputy communications director Sarah Ford, national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray and senior social media strategist Georgia Parke.
Women of color are among Sanders’s most prominent surrogates — and three of these women are among the most prominent new progressives in the United States Congress. They testify in word and in deed to the vitality of the movement.
“This is not just about running for president. This is about creating a mass movement of working class people. …The only reason I thought running for office was even possible for me was because of his example, because he proved that you could run for office and not take big money and you could run a grassroots campaign.”—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“I’m one of the people that was inspired by the movement that the Senator has built. There is an America that I dreamed about. There is an America that most people believe in. It is an ideal. It’s not a reality yet. And he started the work of organizing for that America and that has inspired me to get involved and run myself, to help others also organize for that America.”—Ilhan Omar
“There’s something incredibly inspiring about someone that we know is not going to sell us out, that’s not going to bow down to these structures that are so built on racism, built on choosing those that are wealthy, that he’s consistent in saying that he’s with us first. He will always choose us first.”—Rashida Tlaid
“I am undocumented and unafraid because I am a DACA recipient. My name is Belén Sisa and I am the Latino Press Secretary for Bernie 2020. … Putting someone like me that is so visible within the campaign of someone who can be the next president of the United States is revolutionary.”
Women on staff talk about what drew them to the movement: “Bernie made me feel that I could be part of the change.”
“Sanders’ 2020 National Co-Chair Nina Turner, National Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray, HBCU Outreach Coordinator, and surrogates Phillip Agnew and Ja’Mal Green met with students at Tennessee State University, Alabama State University and Tuskegee University, before the tour culminated at Morehouse.”—Essence
Morehouse College SGA president: “I feel like Bernie’s relations with young Black people is the most developed in the race right now”—News One
“I feel like Bernie’s relations with young Black people is the most developed in the race right now,” said [John] Bowers, the Morehouse SGA [Student Government Association] president who is also an economics major political science minor. “His plans on social development are much more thought out than any other candidate.”
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“I have been supporting Sanders since the 2016 primary,” Victoria Iglesias Roche, a senior political science major at Spelman, said. “Bernie is the most liberal and progressive representative, and he has the track record in Vermont to get it done.”
“For 48 hours on Monday and Tuesday [Aug. 19 — 20], the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, Iowa, became the center and focus of the Indian Country world. … Besides Sen. Elizabeth Warren, it was clear the audience came to see Sanders, giving him a standing ovation and loud chorus of applause upon his introduction.”—Indian Country Today
For 48 hours on Monday and Tuesday, the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, Iowa, became the center and focus of the Indian Country world. Over the two days, 11 democratic candidates addressed Native Americans in a forum that has been long overdue.
Last, but certainly not least, to take the stage at the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Besides Sen. Elizabeth Warren, it was clear the audience came to see Sanders, giving him a standing ovation and loud chorus of applause upon his introduction.
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Throughout his opening remarks and in his answers to questions from the panel, the packed crowd erupted in applause when he spoke on issues pertaining to health care, protecting sacred sites, climate change, missing and murdered indigenous women and more.
“Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his presidential campaign to the Comanche Nation on Sunday [Sep. 22] when he visited the 28th annual Comanche Nation Fair Powwow in Lawton, Oklahoma. Sanders is the first presidential candidate to visit the Comanche Nation since Theodore Roosevelt.”—Native News Online
Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his presidential campaign to the Comanche Nation on Sunday when he visited the 28th annual Comanche Nation Fair Powwow in Lawton, Oklahoma. Sanders is the first presidential candidate to visit the Comanche Nation since Theodore Roosevelt.
Sanders, who visited over a dozen tribal nations in his 2016 presidential run, spoke [about] the broken criminal justice system that disproportionately affects Native American communities, the high poverty rates in Native American communities, and the long and painful history of broken treaties and lies to the Native American community.
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Before the event, Sanders met with tribal citizens and discussed the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women. At the Powwow, Sanders pledged to appoint an Attorney General that will work with Native communities to solve these murders and put an end to this crisis.
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Sanders has a long record of fighting for tribal rights including addressing the wealth gap that is plaguing Native American communities through Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, and much bigger investments in K-12 education in low-income communities. He fought to save Oak Flat by repealing a giveaway to a foreign-owned mining company and has stood alongside advocates fighting against the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines, and the construction of a nuclear storage site on Yucca Mountain.
“Sanders' perceived authenticity and decades-long congressional record, in tandem with outreach to Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, make him the candidate to support, according to the supporters ABC News spoke with.”—ABC News
The Sanders campaign has tapped several Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders to prominent roles.
Faiz Shakir, Sanders' campaign manager, is Pakistani American; California U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, who was born to Indian immigrants, is a national co-chair of the Sanders campaign; Jane Kim, a former San Francisco supervisor and the first Korean American elected official in the city's history, serves as the campaign's California political director. The campaign has also secured state and local endorsements from Asian American and Pacific Islander elected officials in several states.
For some like Jenny Wong, city auditor of Berkeley, California, and a Sanders endorser, seeing Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders holding key positions on his campaign staff signals that Sanders, if elected, would also bring racial diversity to his administration.
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Sanders' perceived authenticity and decades-long congressional record, in tandem with outreach to Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, make him the candidate to support, according to the supporters ABC News spoke with.
"Here's someone who is actually speaking out for us and defending us and giving us a platform -- and giving us power," Texas Sanders volunteer Gemini Wahhaj said.