Tag: Bernie Sanders

Her upset victory was cheered as a resounding win for the activist left – and a repudiation of centrist politics. “People were just excited to have someone stand up for their values,” Eastman said. But as the 2018 midterm primaries play out across the country, the “civil war” that once threatened to undermine Democrats’ path to power appears to be little more than a skirmish in the all-consuming battle they are waging against Trump. In the Georgia Democratic primary for the governorship, Stacey Abrams, a progressive former state house leader, won the race with support from both Clinton and Sanders. 'You don’t tell yourself no': Stacey Abrams' bid to be America's first black female governor Read more “There may be something much simpler and more powerful than ideology at work here,” David Wasserman, a political analyst at the non-partisan Cook Political Report, wrote recently: “Democratic primary voters’ intense desire to nominate women in 2018.” To be sure, there are certain issues and races that have plunged the party back into the bitterness of 2016 . The strategy, which drew progressive backlash in Texas, paid off this week in California, where a glut of candidates threatened to split the share of Democratic voters and produce all-Republican ballots in November under the state’s “jungle primary” system. In order to win back the House, the Democratic party must be willing to intervene in primary races as it did in California, says Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institutution and member of the DNC. The path runs through purple and slightly red districts,” Kamarck said, adding: “The irony here is that the party must win in places where the progressive message doesn’t work as well in order to get close to a place where you can have a progressive agenda.” The tug of the party’s progressive wing didn’t begin with Sanders’s entrance into the 2016 presidential race.But Stephanie Taylor, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, credits him with helping to bring the left’s economic populist agenda into the mainstream. Ideas like a European-style healthcare system, once dismissed as magical thinking, now has the support of more than half of House Democratic lawmakers and one-third of the Senate caucus. Among them is Eastman.

Senator Sanders spoke for nearly an hour with Washington Post national political correspondent James Hohmann on a number of topics and answered Twitter questions. Their initial conversation focused on this week’s primary results and the influence he and the organization that sprang from his presidential campaign — called Our Revolution – has had on politics. “The chairman of the DNC Tom Perez endorsed Andrew Cuomo, who’s locked in a pretty competitive primary with Cynthia Nixon. When you have the head of the DNC, and I’ve worked OK with Perez on some areas, but to endorse one candidate over the other is not what the chair of the DNC should be doing. And when I ran in 2016, three million people in New York state were ineligible to vote. Sanders immediately noted that he “hated” that term and then renewed his vow to prevent cuts in Social Security and Medicare. In my state of Vermont, you’ve got elderly people who are trying to get by on $12 or $13,000 a year Social Security. Sanders, who turns 77 in September, responded he would decide whether he will run “at the appropriate time.” “Number one, 2018, as I have said many times, is the most important midterm election in my lifetime and I’m going to do everything that I can to see that we end one party rule here in Washington where the Republicans, right-wing extremist Republicans control the Senate, the House, and the White House. And then I’m focusing on the important issues that need to be discussed. Believe me, there will be more than enough candidates, I’m quite confident, running for president and at the appropriate time, I will make that decision as to whether I do it or not.

The Story: On Tuesday, the Democratic Party nominated Cindy Axne as its candidate for the US House of Representatives from Iowa's 3rd district, in the...

“Did you mention to somebody doing a history of U.S.-Iranian relations?” he asked aides who had gathered in his Senate office to help him prepare. The town hall meeting in mid-May came off seamlessly, before a modest live audience at the Capitol Visitor Center. The event provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the grass-roots efforts Mr. Sanders has become known for, as his team revved up its campaign engine: A week later, Mr. Sanders would announce his bid for re-election to the Senate. The Iran town hall event would be the third Mr. Sanders has held this year; more than one million people viewed the first, on health care, and roughly 2.5 million watched the second, on inequality, according to Mr. Sanders’s team. President Trump eschewed traditional television advertising during the 2016 campaign and can now overshadow even his own party’s message at the drop of a tweet. Some two-thirds of Americans get at least some of their news on social media, according to a recent Pew Research Center report. “Politicians have always wanted to control the message — they’ve always wanted to dominate the talk,” he said. “In a media environment where you have all kinds of platforms on which to play — only a few of which you have to submit yourself to questions by reporter — then sure, you’re going to use those platforms.” Then there are the politicians who talk mostly, if not exclusively, to friendly reporters, in a different kind of direct appeal to voters. And during the interview this month, as he strode back to his office, Mr. Sanders bristled when asked about his son, who is running for Congress in New Hampshire. He did not take questions.

He reportedly is set to announce a plan that will guarantee a $15-an-hour job -- and health-care benefits -- to every American “who wants or needs one.” The plan, first reported by The Washington Post, would fund hundreds of government projects such as “infrastructure, care giving, the environment, education and other goals.” Sanders’ office said they have not yet done a cost estimate or devised how they would pay for the massive government commitment. A spokesman for Sanders did not respond to a request for more details from Fox News. As the Democratic Party aims to win the House in November and has an eye on the 2020 presidential election, it is looking a lot more like Sanders’ party than it did in 2015, at least when it comes to economic policy. She also called for "big, bold ideas to fix our economy." He urged Democrats to go bold with big visions in response to the election of President Trump. “Then we can negotiate the details.” Meanwhile Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur and a Democratic presidential hopeful, told Fox Business Network Monday that he is proposing $1,000 a month for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 64 as part of a universal basic income program -- even as Finland announced it is scrapping a similar proposal after a two-year test period. “The size of our economy is now $19 trillion a year. A number of Democrats have floated the idea of impeaching Trump should they take the House in November -- a move that has some more mainstream Democrats jittery. "It's 2022 and we are celebrating policy victories across the nation: Medicare for All and Free College, and next on the agenda is Reparations," Democracy Alliance said in invitation to the event. Yet, other Democrats are not there yet.

The Story:  On May 8, Democratic voters in West Virginia will likely re-nominate their party's incumbent Senator, Joe Manchin, despite a primary challenge from his...

Long before senior Trump White House officials were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements covering beyond his presidency, his South Carolina presidential campaign staffers signed NDAs of their own. "We all signed one," she said. That means a signer promises not to demean or disparage publicly "Trump, any Trump Company, any Family Member, or any Family Member Company or any asset." A new listing out of D.C. raises questions whether 1st District U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford of Mount Pleasant may be in the worst boss category. For clarity: Sanford did not make the list of the 10 highest turnover for 2017. But the House Ethics Committee chairman said it's not allowed. Democratic candidate for House District 110 Ben Pogue issued a fundraising appeal telling supporters they can bundle $1,000 contributions for both the June primary AND the November general election, for a total of $2,000 a person. "If you were collecting for both a primary and a general, you would go over the $1,000 limit per election cycle," Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, told Palmetto Politics. A cost assessment by the city said officials spent approximately $4,512.85 to prepare for the VP's visit. "The City plans to keep the red carpeting on the balcony and in the mayor’s conference room and reuse the green bunting to decorate City Hall during future St. Patrick’s Day celebrations," a message said.

Incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski won a narrow victory after a fierce challenge from progressive Marie Newman on Tuesday in Illinois’s third congressional district. However, in a district that backed Hillary Clinton by 15 points in 2016, he faced criticism not just for his views on abortion but his opposition to the Affordable Care Act and refusal to endorse Barack Obama in 2012. Illinois primary pits rare 'pro-life' Democrat against progressive wing Read more The race drew national attention as Newman was backed by a number of major players in the Democratic party including Emily’s List, the Human Rights Campaign and SEIU. She also received the support of national political figures including Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders while touting her support for crucial progressive priorities such as Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage. In contrast, Lipinski relied on support from local labor unions as well as the remnants of the “Democratic machine” in Chicago. In an interview with the Guardian, Ilyse Hogue, the head of the influential pro-choice group Naral, which backed Newman early on, said the group had “made the race a top priority”. Newman echoed this message, telling the Guardian Lipinski was too conservative for the district: “He’s to the right of most Republicans.” She also criticized her opponent for “living on the coattails of his father” and claimed “he doesn’t work hard”. Lipinski is virtually certain to win in November. With 95% of precincts reporting, Pritzker had 46% while Biss had 26% and Kennedy had 24%. With 95% of precincts reporting, the incumbent eked out a win by 52% to 48%.

MONTREAL — Since arriving back in Montreal after nearly three decades abroad, one of the most striking changes I’ve noticed has been the seeming retreat of the separatist movement here. So as I began my Quebec road trip this week in my hometown, I sought out Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a charismatic young proponent of Quebec’s independence from Canada. “Quebec needs to change the rules of the game, and that is not possible when Canada is based on a system in which Queen Elizabeth is the head of state and the constitutional system is centuries old,” he told me on Monday over a coffee in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, a gentrifying working-class neighborhood. Moreover, he argued that Quebec’s independence would help neutralize the province’s simmering far right by expunging easy nationalism and xenophobia in favor of cultural affirmation and human rights. I’d be interested to hear what younger Canadians think of the separatist movement today. Political apathy was not an option. It is bling bling.” Mr. Nadeau-Dubois said the most emotional moment of the 2012 protests came when a young Lebanese-Canadian woman in a head scarf approached him at a protest where 300,000 people had massed in the streets. He said the young woman told him that, while the strike had divided her family, her mother had come to appreciate its importance as a struggle for accessible education for everyone. Ms. Nottaway is a passionate advocate for Indigenous rights, and I plan to talk to her about the anguish after the killing of Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous man shot dead by a Saskatchewan farmer, Gerald Stanley, who was found not guilty of murder. She and I will join my colleagues from The New York Times’s Race/Related team in a Facebook Live chat at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

Sen. Kamala Harris is increasingly positioning herself for a what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary for the White House in 2020. The former California attorney general, who is just at the beginning of her second year in the Senate, is taking positions that could endear herself with the Democratic base while allowing her to stand out from a group of Democrats who might seek the progressive mantle. Harris voted against a Senate immigration bill backed by centrists from both parties earlier this month, waiting until the last minute to break with other liberals such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass. ), who both backed the measure. “While this bill would put Dreamers on a pathway toward citizenship, the appropriation of $25 billion for a border wall is a waste of taxpayer money,” she said. “I am not going to be silenced by attacks from the NRA or anyone else,” she wrote on Twitter, minutes after NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre labeled Harris and other Democrats “new European-style socialists bearing down upon us.” Last week, after the nation began another discussion on gun control following the Feb. 14 shooting at a Florida high school, Harris immediately weighed in on MSNBC. “We cannot tolerate a society and live in a country with any level of pride when our babies are being slaughtered,” she said in a video that quickly went viral. Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who is based in California, said Harris “feels a responsibility and an obligation to stand up on issues she has long been involved with.” “It’s a natural position for any progressive Democrat from California because they have a record to point to of having engaged on those issues,” Lehane said. “She’s looking to be a champion of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College in California, saying that Harris “has a chance at getting a lot of support.” “It’s a position that’s not going to hurt her in the state of California and it will endear her to Democratic progressives who are looking for an assertive stance against the NRA,” Pitney added of her comments on guns.