Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders accused national Democratic Party leaders of “misreading where the American people are at” ahead of midterm elections in November.
Sanders did not single out a specific person or institution, but argued Sunday the public is ready for more progressive candidates.
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“I think that they are wrong, and I think they are misreading where the American people are at,” Sanders said to “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd’s suggestion that “national Democrats” are uneasy about Kara Eastman’s primary win in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District.
Eastman, a progressive Democrat, defeated former Rep. Brad Ashford, who was backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Sanders, a political independent who ran as a left-wing alternative to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, said, “Many of the issues that I campaigned on two years ago, issues like Medicare for all, raising the minimum wage and the 15 bucks an hour, taking on the pharmaceutical industry, making public colleges and universities tuition-free, legalizing marijuana. A few years ago those were seen as radical, fringy ideas. Well, you know what? In every instance those ideas are now supported by the American people, by the majority of the American people, overwhelming the percentage of Democrats.”
Eastman, who won the Nebraska primary last week, supports a single-payer health insurance system, and the wisdom of greater government involvement in healthcare is expected to be a major general-election issue in the Omaha district.
Sanders argued that more progressive Democrats aren’t necessarily less electable because “you’re going to see voter turnout go up at a level of excitement that conservative Democrats don’t raise.”
“Establishment Democrats don’t generate excitement,” Sanders said.
