It sounds like the start of a bad joke, or maybe a true crime documentary: “A senator and a rapper walk into a nail salon together.” On Monday, it was the beginning of a campaign video involving Bernie Sanders and Cardi B.
The Bernie Bros aren’t quite as vocal as they were in 2016, so Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, needs a new way to capture the votes of millennials and disenfranchised college students. Cardi B must have seemed like a perfect choice.
The rapper has been a fan of the senator for some time, saying in April that she’ll be rooting for Sanders in 2020.
“Imma always go with Bernie,” she said. “Bernie don’t say things to be cool. There’s pictures of him being an activist from a very, very, very long time.”
That was before the first Democratic debate, and earlier this month, she repeated her support.
“I been reading about Bernie Sanders and I’m really sad how we let him down in 2016,” she tweeted. “This man been fighting for equal rights,HUMAN rights for such along time.Seeing this country become a better place been really his passion for a long time not a new front for a campaign.”
I been reading about Bernie Sanders and I’m really sad how we let him down in 2016 This man been fighting for equal rights,HUMAN rights for such along time.Seeing this country become a better place been really his passion for a long time not a new front for a campaign.
— iamcardib (@iamcardib) July 16, 2019
Now, the unlikely partners have teamed up for a campaign video, as 77-year-old Sanders hopes to recapture the youth vote.
“Not me, US. Thank you Senator Bernie Sanders for sitting with me and sharing your plans on how you will change this country,” Cardi B wrote in an Instagram post. “Stay tuned to see how he will fight for economic, racial, and social justice for all. Together, let’s build a movement of young people to transform this country.”
As the two met up at a Detroit nail salon on Monday to film a campaign video together, Sanders told CNN that he has his eye on the youth, a historically difficult demographic to draw to the ballot box.
“We [are] working on a way to involve more young people in the political process,” he said. “The future of America depends on young people. They are voting in large numbers, but not large enough numbers.”
Sanders appears to have lost the magnetism that drew young people to him three years ago. Unfortunately for him, promising free college no longer makes him an outlier, as competitors such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., have also targeted higher education with plans to offer free tuition or cancel student loan debt.
By partnering with the Grammy-winning rapper, however, Sanders stands out. Cardi B is the queen of viral political rants, even complaining during tax season last year that the government should tell her what it’s “doing with my f—ing tax money.”
Thanks to Cardi B’s popularity and penchant for political tirades, Sanders wins with the Bernie-Cardi B collaboration. It’s just too bad the rapper doesn’t realize that her favorite democratic socialist plans to inflate the taxes she hates so much.
