Get ready for another presidential election season with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders adding some spice to the campaign, Bernie boosters tell The Hill. The Sanders supporters say the independent senator will seek support for the Democratic Party nomination.
“I expect him to run,” Larry Cohen told the Hill. Cohen runs Our Revolution, an organization that came together after Sanders lost out to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary slugfest.
“He’s probably the most popular elected official,” Cohen added.
The Sanders team weren’t always convinced their candidate would run again but are again suggesting the time has come for the self-proclaimed socialist.
Sanders’ previous campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, told The Hill that the former candidate “is being very thoughtful about” about running again.
“He’s very focused on the question of beating Trump and putting a Democrat in the White House,” Weaver said. “And if he runs, it’s because he thinks he’s the one to do it.”
Advocates for another Sanders candidacy note that the senator has a large and loyal support base, a waiting campaign team and a Democratic Party that has shifted to the Left with him. His pet project of socialized medicine, like the Canadian single-payer plan, has been adopted by mainstream Democrats.
But other Democrats are quick to nix another primary with Sanders, saying the outspoken senator weakened the party and kept some supporters from voting for candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Sanders can continue on his quixotic presidential campaign but NOT as a Democrat,” Clinton spokeswoman and former Rep. Ellen Tauscher told The Hill.
“He’s completely using the party to serve his best interests,” one longtime Clinton aide added. “He’s a Democrat only when it’s convenient to be a Democrat.”