Donald Trump is trying to poach Bernie Sanders’ supporters by pushing a similar protectionist message on trade, but Democrats close to Hillary Clinton aren’t worried.
“She can appeal to moderates and independents with her policies, and because Trump has taken such extreme positions, she doesn’t even have to tweak things much,” a Washington Democrat with connections to the Clinton and Obama White Houses told the Washington Examiner.
Sanders and Trump both promote taking apart trade deals and imposing tariffs to bring back highly paid blue-collar jobs, a message that resonates with voters in Appalachia and rural Midwestern states in particular. While Clinton opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership in its current iteration, she is seen as more pro-trade than either of her remaining opponents and her husband promoted free trade as president.
With Clinton closing in on the Democratic nomination, Trump has been playing up his similarities to Sanders. He claimed to be exasperated by Democrats treating the Vermont senator “unfairly” and he has said Sanders should run as a third party candidate.
Trump has even moved a little bit on policy. He has expressed openness to a minimum wage increase and advertised his big tax cut for the wealthy as an opening bid, admitting the rich are likely to pay more.
As it became increasingly clear Trump and Clinton would face off in the general election, Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski compared Trump and Sanders’ supporters as both being people “disenfranchised and disappointed” by the political elite, and he pledged that the Trump campaign “will bring those people in.”
But Trump might have a hard time winning over disgruntled Democrats who are quite liberal and offended by some of the billionaire’s positions and rhetoric.
“Even though there are some similarities between Sanders and Trump and those aren’t overriding factors for any progressives I’m aware of. And on a lot of those key issues Clinton has moved to the left to mirror him,” Democratic bundler Jon Cooper told the Washington Examiner. “For Bernie Sanders supporters they’re going to be faced with the possibility that if they don’t support Hillary, Trump will be in the Oval Office.”
Sanders himself repeatedly calls out Trump for his “extreme” policies, telling his voters that it’s important to always remember, “love trumps hate.”
But according to a recent poll, 25 percent of Sanders supporters would shun Clinton in the general election, either by voting for Trump or by not voting at all. This number is even higher in Appalachia, where exit polls show that up to 40 percent of West Virginia Democrats wouldn’t vote for Clinton in November.
“People are suffering here, so anything that smacks of establishment politics is not welcome,” West Virginia Democratic super delegate Chris Regan told the Washington Examiner. “Sanders is after a political revolution and that appeals to people.”
But, he added, many of these Democrats who favored Sanders over Clinton won’t buy into Trump’s ever-changing policies and are looking for a politician with more stable positions.
“Donald Trump probably already forgot about West Virginia now that it’s over,” Reagan added. “I don’t think Trump’s positions are actual thought out positions, I think they are sought out at a moment in time to appeal to a group of people. What’s most needed here is a very specific plan about how we can transition our economy.”
