Bernie Sanders will be joined in New Hampshire this weekend by a Hillary Clinton challenger who faced much longer odds: 2006 New York Democratic Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini.
Much like Sanders, Tasini, a former union leader, was relatively unknown when he first challenged Clinton in 2006. At the time, Clinton was running for her second term and refused to debate with Tasini and beat him with 83 percent of the vote in the primary, while barely mentioning his name.
Tasini’s support for Sanders runs deeper than your average supporter’s, as the former politician recently wrote a book on the Democratic socialist from Vermont, titled The Essential Bernie Sanders and his Vision for America, focusing on Sanders’ efforts to “movement to take back our country from the rich and powerful, and return it to its rightful owners — we, the American people”
“Had Bernie not run, I would have just stayed out of the whole thing. And if he hadn’t run I wouldn’t be looking around to find someone else,” Tasini told the New York Times, adding that “Bernie faces a steep hill” on his path to the nomination.
Sander’s currently leads Clinton by 43.4 percent 31.8 percent in the polling average for New Hampshire, the first primary state. Sanders and Tasini will be there on Friday to campaign and to attend the Portsmouth Democrats annual banquet.
