Politics Bernie Sanders blames election loss on Kamala Harris listening to billionaires over working class

I don't know what I mean either. I've never had the time to be involved that way.

 

I guess what I mean is, should the groups be contacting Bernie and AOC's people to get help organizing?

As an aside, it would be cool if there was a pledge list of politicians who refuse corporate or large dollar donations. It would probably be a short list...

 

It sounds like Bernie may be interested in talking of you know some groups who might be interested in reaching out and maybe has a good candidate willing to reject corporate and billionaire donations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/31/bernie-sanders-harris-democrats

 

Sanders says Harris fell short with working class. He has a plan to fix that.

The independent senator from Vermont is deploying his expansive political network to fill a void he says Democrats have created. Not all in the party are happy.



Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) speaks to a crowd in Folsom, California, on April 15. (Paul Kuroda/For the Washington Post)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is deploying his expansive political network to elevate left-leaning candidates and ideas in the midterm elections, accusing Democrats including Kamala Harris of falling short with working-class voters and raising fresh tensions in a party divided over how to rebuild.

In an interview with The Washington Post during his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour this spring, Sanders called Harris, the 2024 presidential nominee, a friend, but added that the campaign she ran “went around the country with Liz Cheney, had billionaires talking for her, basically did not talk to the needs of the working class of this country.”

Now, the independent senator from Vermont — who caucuses with Democrats and twice sought the party’s nomination for president — is stepping up his efforts to influence the party as it heads toward next year’s midterms and right some of what he thinks went wrong in 2024.

One of the top goals he has identified is recruiting “working-class” candidates who refuse to take money from billionaire donors and lobbyists and who he argues have constrained the Democratic agenda. About 7,000 people responded to a recruiting call that his political organization promoted, and about half want to run as independents, according to Sanders and his aides.

His political organization is also aiming to hire staff in more than three-dozen districts across 18 states to fight President Donald Trump’s agenda and train supporters to pressure vulnerable Republicans to oppose cuts to the social safety net. And Sanders himself has so far endorsed Democratic candidates in four open races, with more likely to come.

“Do Democrats do enough? No,” Sanders said in an interview this month. “The difference that I have with the Democratic leadership is not in the need to vigorously oppose Trump. It’s to bring forth an agenda that resonates with working-class families. And I think there are a number of Trump people who will support that agenda.”

Sanders has long clashed with establishment and centrist Democrats, and his latest efforts have been met with skepticism from some who see his efforts as potentially counterproductive for a party trying to revive its image after a devastating 2024 election that put Republicans in control of Congress and the White House.

Some are worried that he will stoke intraparty fights or elevate polarizing candidates in battleground races where Democrats will need to marshal resources for the general election. Others are uneasy with his backing of independents or see his firebrand liberal platform and use of terms such as “oligarchy” to describe Trump and his allies as off-putting.

“If the Democrats have a shot at winning the House and the Senate, they need to be firing on all cylinders and not just steering to the hard left or the hard right. The point of politics is winning in order to govern, not passing ideological purity tests,” said Steve Israel, a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman.

The disagreements reflect a party still struggling to find a path forward more than six months after the November elections. Democrats have no clear standard-bearer and are presenting competing ideas to fix the party’s deep unpopularity. Protests against Trump’s agenda have been large and spirited, giving Democrats an opening for a rebound. But the challenges ahead are broad and deep.

Sanders, 83, has said he is highly unlikely to run for the White House again. But he has embarked on something of a legacy-shaping project that he hopes will help reverse those trends. After huge crowds showed up at his recent rallies with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who is seen by many as a potential successor in his movement, he was emboldened to step up his involvement in the midterms.

Democrats lost in 2024, Sanders argues, because they were perceived as defenders of the status quo who embraced incrementalism, rather than a party with a compelling agenda to address income and wealth inequality and the daily economic struggles many working-class families are facing.

Last month, on the 10th anniversary of his first presidential run, Sanders joined a Zoom call with several thousand attendees from his “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies who had responded to the recruiting effort that his political organization, Friends of Bernie Sanders, had made. He outlined how his organization and its partners would help train and support them.

“All that we ask from you is that you have courage to stand up with a battered working class in this country. Have the courage to take on the wealthy and the powerful,” Sanders told the group.

Many Democrats acknowledge the party’s struggles last year to win over voters without a college degree, including some voters of color. Some have suggested focusing now primarily on arguing that Trump’s agenda hurts working-class voters, rather than embracing ideas popular on the left such as Medicare-for-all.

Some Democrats have also voiced concerns that Sanders could end up boosting untested contenders who could be general election liabilities, pointing to previous losses by some far-left nominees. Others warned that independents could pull votes away from Democrats and suggested the party focus on uniting.

“We have to keep our eye on who really is the enemy,” former Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison said. “We don’t need a lot of big Democratic primaries. What we need are a lot of people running against Republican incumbents.”

The Vermont senator says that he has been thinking carefully about who he endorses and that the goal of regaining Democratic control of the House is at the top of his mind. He has backed four candidates in open races so far: Adelita Grijalva in Arizona’s 7th District, state Sen. Robert Peters in Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District, fifth-generation logger Troy Jackson for governor of Maine and Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, for U.S. Senate in Michigan, a contested primary.

In recent Zoom calls with his supporters, organizers and candidate recruits, Sanders described an ambitious three-phase project that extends beyond the midterms: defeating Trump’s tax and immigration bill by targeting the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress with calls, protests and events about the effects of the GOP’s proposed spending cuts; helping win back Democratic control of the House in 2026; and curbing the influence of wealthy donors in politics.

If reliant only on small-dollar donors, the Vermont senator said he believes elected Democrats will pursue goals he champions such as universal health care, raising the minimum wage, taxing the rich, addressing child care costs and reducing the cost of higher education.

Sanders told his supporters on the recent Zoom calls that the Democratic Party is a “top-down” effort that has not organized voters in a granular way, particularly in red states such as Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota and Texas.

“There are a number of states around the country where it almost virtually does not exist,” he said in the interview this month.

The Democratic Party’s new chairman, Ken Martin, has increased the amount of money that the DNC gives to parties in the 50 states for organizing, hiring and research. The largest increase went to red states, and the overall investment by the DNC in state parties now amounts to more than $1 million a month. Martin said in a statement that the party has to “start with focusing on a working-class agenda that unites families across race, age, background, and class.”

It is not yet clear which offices Sanders’s recruits will run for, how many will ultimately do so, or how many he will endorse. Friends of Bernie Sanders has paired them up with three veteran groups that work with new candidates: Run for Something, Contest Every Race and the National Democratic Training Committee, people involved in the conversations said. Teachers were the most common profession among the recruits and many were veterans, according to Sanders aides. And Friends of Bernie is flush with cash for Sanders’s new organizing project, having raised more than $11.5 million in the first quarter of this year with more than $19 million in cash on hand.

Many of the potential candidates, Sanders political adviser Faiz Shakir said, are not interested in being associated with the Democratic brand. “These are people who know why they are running,” he said. “It’s a vision of taking on the elite, taking on the powerful, taking on the establishment to make working-class lives better. That is what motivates them.”

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Some good points but let's focus on the one in power.

A big weakness of Bernie is he has not won significant support among Black voters in any of his presidential runs. I am absolutely not calling him racist. Just stating a fact. In 2020 Biden had huge edge among Black voters and Clinton did as well although not by such a big margin. Something he does have to work on.

 

Democratic Party is at risk of becoming ‘roadkill,’ warns Tim Walz

The Minnesota governor unleashed harsh language during appearances this weekend, in the clearest signs yet that he is weighing a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.



Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made coast-to-coast appearances on Saturday, ending the day at the California Democratic Party's 2025 state convention in Anaheim. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz harshly critiqued the Democratic Party and its failure to connect with the working class in coast-to-coast appearances on Saturday, warning in a speech here in California that the party is at risk of becoming “roadkill” after its steep losses in the 2024 elections.

In one of the clearest signs yet that he is seriously weighing a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 after serving as Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, Walz spent the morning addressing Democrats in the early primary state of South Carolina before dashing across the country to close out a gathering of state party delegates in Anaheim.

Walz acknowledged that his prominent role as the vice-presidential nominee during last year’s election put him in an awkward position to suggest revamping the party’s message. But on Saturday, he argued that his party has “strayed from our North Star” as a champion for the working class. Democrats needed to “be honest” about their failings because the 2024 loss of the White House and both houses of Congress has created major consequences for the most vulnerable people in the country.

During both appearances, he encouraged Democrats to match President Donald Trump’s tough tactics and worry less about offending people. While he hails from a state known for “Minnesota nice,” he argued that Trump is motivated by “cruelty and corruption” and that the GOP’s proposed cuts to health care, education and food assistance programs warrant a new approach.

Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner,” Walz said during an appearance in Columbia, South Carolina. “When it’s a bully like Donald Trump, you bully the s--- out of him.”

Later in the day after he flew cross-country to California, he said that the Democratic Party “used to be the party that had the courage to do the big, bold stuff,” citing several historic accomplishments like the creation of the Social Security program. While the party has good ideas, Walz said, leaders, once they’re elected, “incrementally change things and we don’t do the big stuff.”

Democrats talk about important issues, Walz said, but average people don’t see tangible changes in their lives: “The voters come away thinking we’re either incapable of getting big things done, or we truly don’t care, and we’re just talking about it for votes.”

The Minnesota governor cited a recent New York Times article about the Democratic Party’s examination of its losses, where a Georgia voter was quoted describing the party as “a deer in headlights” — an animal that stands in the path of an oncoming car and doesn’t move even though it’s going to get hit. That view, he warned, presents an “existential threat” for Democrats.

“There is an appetite out there across this country to govern with courage and competency, to call crap where it is, not be afraid to make a mistake about things, but to show people who you truly are and that they don’t have to wonder who the Democratic Party is,” Walz said.

He argued that people who are showing up at town halls in recent months to protest GOP policies aren’t choosing between the politics of the left and the right, but are instead judging politicians by their willingness to stand up and fight.

“They don’t want to see us standing like a deer in the goddamn headlights, and there’s a good reason for that,” Walz said in Anaheim. “Nobody votes for roadkill.”

Walz’s strong language echoes some of the criticisms of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is accusing Democrats, including Walz’s running mate, of not doing enough to serve working-class voters.

Earlier on Saturday, Walz touched on similar themes in a 50-minute speech before roughly 1,000 South Carolina Democrats at the state party’s annual convention in Columbia — noting Democrats’ need to compete more forcefully in Republican-leaning states.

Walz’s keynote speech at the convention in South Carolina came after back-to-back appearances Friday night at the state party’s annual Blue Palmetto Dinner, where Maryland Gov. Wes Moore — another potential 2028 presidential contender — was the headliner, and an annual fish fry hosted by Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.).

“I called it my 90-day ‘Eras Tour’ to seven states. I went to the same seven damn states over and over and over,” Walz said of his 2024 experience at the fish fry, prompting laughs and cheers from some in the crowd as he referenced superstar Taylor Swift’s recent concert tour.

“You know what? People are pissed off in South Carolina, they’re pissed off in Texas, they’re pissed off in Indiana,” Walz added. “And there’s more of us than there are of the billionaires. So we need to change the attitude, compete in every district, compete for every school board seat.”

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That certainly would be helpful for the left. I don't know how that would happen.

I actually don't think Bernie needs to gain that support, but he needs to bring people into the fold who can gain that support. I'd be shocked if Bernie ran again.

I'll be disappointed if someone else doesn't pick up where he left off.

 

Broaden the base, sure, but don't turn away from most loyal supporters. Sometimes attracting "workers" means Archie Bunker. Straight white male non college. Who would supposedly vote for Democrats if they stopped supporting Black lives matter or trans rights or legal abortion.

 

I don't think the average straight white male non college worker cares about preventing legal abortion, or equality for women or other races. Or even trans rights (until it involves sports, which I think should be a place middle ground can be found).

I think they probably care far more about further gun restrictions than all of the above. But moreso the ability to access good wages and ability to get jobs, healthcare, and education. And cleaning up homelessness.

I really think there is a path to getting these voters if Dems can convince them they can get stuff done without further restrictions.

And that is very possible if the Democrats just focus on Bernie's basic agenda as well as figure out a solution for actually getting public works done rather than the lip service they feel like they got from the Inflation Reduction Act, California high speed rail, etc.

See the book abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson for more on how the lack of actually getting things done is hurting the Democrats.