NYT: Democratic Leaders Willing to Risk Party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders

[Saucycarpdog]

Democratic Leaders Willing to Risk Party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders (Published 2020)

Interviews with dozens of Democratic Party officials, including 93 superdelegates, found overwhelming opposition to handing Mr. Sanders the nomination if he fell short of a majority of delegates.

www.nytimes.com

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, hear constant warnings from allies about congressional losses in November if the party nominates Bernie Sanders for president. Democratic House members share their Sanders fears on text-messaging chains. Bill Clinton, in calls with old friends, vents about the party getting wiped out in the general election.

And officials in the national and state parties are increasingly anxious about splintered primaries on Super Tuesday and beyond, where the liberal Mr. Sanders edges out moderate candidates who collectively win more votes.

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"We're way, way, way past the day where party leaders can determine an outcome here, but I think there's a vibrant conversation about whether there is anything that can be done," said Jim Himes, a Connecticut congressman and superdelegate, who believed the nominee should have a majority of delegates.

From California to the Carolinas, and North Dakota to Ohio, the party leaders say they worry that Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist with passionate but limited support so far, will lose to President Trump, and drag down moderate House and Senate candidates in swing states with his left-wing agenda of "Medicare for all" and free four-year public college.

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Jay Jacobs, the New York State Democratic Party chairman and a superdelegate, echoing many others interviewed, said that superdelegates should choose a nominee they believed had the best chance of defeating Mr. Trump if no candidate wins a majority of delegates during the primaries.

Mr. Sanders argued that he should become the nominee at the convention with a plurality of delegates, to reflect the will of voters, and that denying him the nomination would enrage his supporters and split the party for years to come.

"Bernie wants to redefine the rules and just say he just needs a plurality," Mr. Jacobs said. "I don't think we buy that. I don't think the mainstream of the Democratic Party buys that. If he doesn't have a majority, it stands to reason that he may not become the nominee."

This article is based on interviews with the 93 superdelegates, out of 771 total, as well as party strategists and aides to senior Democrats about the thinking of party leaders. A vast majority of those superdelegates — whose ranks include federal elected officials, former presidents and vice presidents and D.N.C. members — predicted that no candidate would clinch the nomination during the primaries, and that there would be a brokered convention fight in July to choose a nominee.

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Much more at the link.

 

[infiniteloop]

 

[_Karooo]

Establishment usually doesn't have the guts to go against the base. They will fall in line.

 

[peppermints]

"And officials in the national and state parties are increasingly anxious about splintered primaries on Super Tuesday and beyond, where the liberal Mr. Sanders edges out moderate candidates who collectively win more votes."

So they're worried about the primary system working as designed, got it.

 

[Dennis8K]

You mean to stop Bernie Sanders and give Trump four more years as President.

 

[Busaiku]

"Bernie wants to redefine the rules and just say he just needs a plurality," Mr. Jacobs said. "I don't think we buy that. I don't think the mainstream of the Democratic Party buys that. If he doesn't have a majority, it stands to reason that he may not become the nominee."

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I hate this country.

 

[nintendoman58]

This article is based on interviews with the 93 superdelegates, out of 771 total

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[Video Games Are Dumb]

Considering donald fucking trump has been the president for the last three years, I'm not really worried what party leaders think.

It really is up to the voters.

 

[Clefargle]

Someone said the quiet part out loud the other day. They think the Republican Party folded tight an extremist in 2016 and they see Bernie as the same situation

 

[Voyager]

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I'm no Sanders supporter but every time I hear something like this, these types of polls pop into my head. I ain't worried about him in the general, at all.

 

[Tamanon]

I mean, plurality is not a majority. If we get in a situation where superdelegates decide the nominee in anyway, it's going to lead to big trouble.

 

[ZealousD]

Whatever damage they think will happen if Bernie is nominated (significantly less than they think, if any at all) is peanuts compared to the damage that would happen if Bernie won a plurality of votes and did not become the nominee.

All they have to look at is his donor numbers.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

This can be discussed in the Democratic Primary thread:

Democratic Presidential Primary |February OT| It Can't be Worse than Iowa, Right? (Discussion Guidelines in OP)

Greetings, users and lurkers of Era, to our first official 2020 Democratic Primaries & Caucuses OT! As you may know, the long national nightmare known as the 2020 Democratic Primary is coming to a head next month as ballots are cast in primaries and sweaty partisans take to caucuses to scream at...

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