Nearly 20-year incumbent Delaware Sen. Tom Carper is fervently working to fend off a progressive primary challenger making Carper’s reluctance to sign on to single-payer a pivotal issue.
Carper’s challenger in the Democratic primary is Kerri Harris, a community organizer and Air Force veteran who is running her first statewide campaign. Harris has attacked Carper from his left flank, and believes that her support for a single-payer “Medicare for all” system is a major advantage for her campaign.
“I think it is a defining issue,” she recently told the Washington Examiner on the race for the Democratic nomination. “It speaks across demographic lines as well as party lines. It is a unifying issue.”
The conflicts over “Medicare for all” in Harris and Carper’s race could play out in similar primary contests across the country this season.
Harris has modeled her “Medicare for all” plan similar to the one introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., last year. The plan would replace private insurance with a federally-run system, and have the federal government bear the costs for providing insurance to all Americans.
The policy idea is gaining traction among mainstream Democrats. When Sanders introduced his bill last year, potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates like Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York signed on.
But Carper, who has served in the Senate since 2001 and was Delaware’s governor from 1993 to 2001, opposes the plan, a stance that creates a rift between him and the Left that Harris aims to exploit.
Harris said that because Carper doesn’t support “Medicare for all,” he is only paying “lip service” to the progressive goal of universal healthcare.
She noted that, during the Obamacare debate, Carper opposed the public option, which would be a government-run option for Obamacare insurance marketplaces to buy plans and was also backed by progressives.
Carper said that he and Sanders are interested in the same result.
“It is making sure that everybody in our country has access to affordable healthcare,” he recently told the Washington Examiner in the Senate. “The question is: How do we get there?”
Carper said that a “Medicare for all” system should first be tested at the state level before going to the federal level.
“We ought to test drive it in the states and learn from that,” he said.
Democratic leadership has shied away from fully embracing “Medicare for all.” For instance, when Sanders introduced his latest bill last September, it got no support from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
But the idea is generating more popularity among the Democratic base.
Progressive challengers like Harris have been emboldened by the unlikely victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who beat 10-term House incumbent Joe Crowley in a New York City congressional district running a left-wing campaign. Harris even canvassed for votes for Ocasio-Cortez, who pressed for “Medicare for all” before her victory.
Carper made Harris’ viability in the general election a key reason primary voters should support him over the progressive insurgent.
“I like her, but I don’t believe she is likely to be elected in a general election,” Carper said of Harris.
Carper said that there needs to be “checks and balances” on the Trump administration, insinuating that Democrats cannot afford to support Harris because she has a slimmer chance in the general election.
Carper is heavily outraising Harris, having raised $2.9 million as of June. Harris has raised $46,650, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
But Harris said that the number one issue she hears about from people is healthcare, specifically ‘Medicare for all.’
She adds that people are concerned about costs but that “most people aren’t afraid of raising taxes to have healthcare.”
The cost of a single-payer system has been a key criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.
A recent report from the right-leaning think tank the Mercatus Center found that Sanders’ plan would add $32 trillion in federal budget commitments over the next decade.
Harris pointed out that the same analysis found that “Medicare for all” would also save $2 trillion per year because the federal government could negotiate for lower prices and get rid of bureaucracy surrounding healthcare.
“It will cost money, but overall it costs less. We have the CBO reports that show that,” she said. “After that, it is just semantics and fear tactics that are keeping people from voting and trying to advance this ‘Medicare for all’ idea.”
Carper said that he has an “obligation to be fiscally responsible.”
The longtime incumbent added that he is not taking Harris’ challenge lightly. Carper is rolling out billboards and television ads to remind voters of the primary on Thursday, Sept. 6.
He explained that he sometimes takes the train to Delaware from Washington with former House Republican lawmaker Mike Castle, who lost a primary for Senate in 2010 to Tea Party insurgent Christine O’Donnell. She was defeated soundly in the general election that year by current incumbent Chris Coons.
Carper said that Castle advised him to “not take your opponents lightly, don’t take anything for granted and invest in the primary.”
