On Friday, representatives appointed by Hillary Clinton to the Democratic Party platform committee chose to reject the $15 minimum wage amendment proposed by Bernie Sanders during his campaign.
“The proposal was defeated eight-to-six. The only person on the committee aside from Sanders’ surrogates who supported the amendment was California Rep. Barbara Lee,” Salon reported.
During the April 14 CNN Democratic debate, Clinton attempted to clarify her stance on Bernie’s proposal.
“I have supported the fight for 15. I am proud to have the endorsement of most of the unions that have led the fight for 15,” Clinton noted. “But what I have also said is that we’ve got to be smart about it … If you look at it, we moved more quickly to $15 in New York City, more deliberately toward $12, $12.50 upstate then to $15. That is exactly my position. It’s a model for the nation and that’s what I will do as president.”
Clinton’s changing stance pleased a majority of Democratic voters.
“Seventy-five percent of Americans support raising the federal minimum wage to $12.50 by 2020, including 92 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans,” a Hart Research poll reported. Results from the poll also found that “63 percent of Americans support an even greater federal minimum wage increase to $15 by 2020.”
“Clinton’s representatives argued the platform already expresses support for a $15 minimum wage, although the language is weak and offers no mechanism for getting there,” Ben Norton wrote regarding the DNC’s rejection of Sanders’s proposal. “Sanders’ supporters called for the explicit demand of an indexed $15 federal minimum wage.”
Representative Keith Ellison, whom Sanders appointed to the committee, attempted to clarify the proposal’s intention.
“We are going through one of the worst periods of wage stagnation in our nation’s history,” Ellison said. “Americans who are working on the federal minimum wage now, which is $7.25 per hour, are eligible for food stamps, Section 8 housing and Medicaid.”
Although Ellison stood strong on his stance, his points were not enough to get Clinton representatives on board.
In a statement regarding the amendment, Communications Director Jeremy Adler for America Rising Squared discussed the consequence the results will have for Clinton.
“Hours before the platform committee voted it down, Bernie Sanders said his ‘goal’ was to get the DNC platform committee to adopt a $15 minimum wage,” Adler noted. “Their refusal to do so this afternoon is a glaring problem for Hillary Clinton, who Sanders supporters remain increasingly wary of backing. Today’s vote by the platform committee only makes that already difficult challenge harder.”
With Trump’s stance on minimum wage shifting in recent months, the public could see some left-leaning Democrats and previous Bernie supporters take a chance on Trump.
In the fall, Trump declared “we have to leave [the minimum wage] the way it is,” Newsweek reported.
By May, however, Trump changed. “I would like to see an increase of some magnitude … Sure, it’s a change. I’m allowed to change. You need flexibility,” Trump said.
The final months of the campaign will prove a testing time for Clinton, as Bloomberg recently released a national poll revealing that just over half of Sanders’ supporters plan to vote for Clinton, showing Trump could be snatching up some of those Sanders voters when November rolls around.
