Sanders campaign ‘cautiously optimistic’ DNC won’t rig 2020 primary

“All we can be is cautiously hopeful that the process will be fair, and reforms were made after 2016, which helped the process to be more fair,” Gray said in an interview with Hill.TV on Monday. “I think there are a lot more eyes on the process and a lot more skepticism than there was going into last year or last time around, so that will help.”

She added, “But, additionally, it’s just a lot harder to put your finger on the scale when there’s someone who is actually coming into the race in a leadership position and coming into the primaries in a leadership position.”

In 2016, the DNC took several steps to bolster the eventual nominee Hillary Clinton while hampering Sanders. Donna Brazile admitted that she leaked a set of debate questions to Clinton to give her an edge over Sanders prior to becoming interim chairwoman of the DNC, and the committee had a Joint Fundraising Agreement with Clinton’s campaign, giving her campaign fundraising advantages and power over the DNC, from which Sanders was excluded.

Additionally, the DNC gave significant power to “superdelegates.” Most of these high-power delegates put their support behind Clinton, not Sanders. The committee ruled in 2018 that they would strip these delegates of their power in the first round of voting at the convention in 2020 after outrage from Sanders’s 2016 supporters.

Gray explained that she’s optimistic about the changes in the DNC but noted that the campaign is concerned about an unfair media coverage.

“We’re still getting articles that talk about other candidates surging when they have in fact declined and us maintaining when in fact surging,” she said. “In fact, we have had a slow and steady increase over time.”

Sanders, 78, is polling at 16.7% nationally, according to the RealClearPolitics national average of polls. As Gray noted, Sanders has positioned himself as a top-tier candidate among the 18 Democrats in the race.