Former President Jimmy Carter is warning his fellow party members not to move too far to the left, even after he voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
“Independents need to know they can invest their vote in the Democratic Party,” Carter said Tuesday at his post-presidential center and library in Atlanta, according to the Associated Press.
Democrats may not be able to make gains in the November midterm elections and 2020 elections if they “move to a very liberal program, like universal healthcare,” he said, urging the party to “appeal to independents” who are growing tired of the Trump administration.
Trump’s approval rating among independents hit a new low, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday. Last month, 47 percent of independents approved of the job the president is doing, dropping to 31 percent in the latest poll.
Carter’s advice could be seen as contradictory as he admitted he and his wife, Rosalynn, voted for Sanders, an independent who ran as a Democrat in the 2016 presidential election. Sanders has pushed for a universal healthcare system aimed at guaranteeing healthcare to all.
But Carter doesn’t believe progressives will abandon Democrats if they don’t move further left.
“I don’t think any Democrat is going to vote against a Democratic nominee,” he argued.
[Related: As the Left goes extreme, millennials find themselves agreeing with the Right]
