Bernie Sanders Calls for Progressives' Election as Means to Defeat Trump

Will the Democratic Party establishment wake up and work for progressives in this Blue Wave year?

Democratic primaries in the coming weeks will tell, including in key states Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Ohio

In Ohio, Dennis Kucinich (with Tara Samples) is running for the Democratic Party's nomination for governor. The election is May 8.

Kucinich is backed by Our Revolution, a non-profit progeny of Bernie Sanders' 2016 run for the presidency. In a rational political culture, Our Revolution's endorsement would give the primary election to Kucinich.

The failed War on Drugs has destroyed communities, filled prisons and cost taxpayers millions.

More and more states are doing their part to restore sense, compassion and fairness to their criminal justice systems. It's time Ohio did the same. #OHGov https://t.co/ggMQ0dnEjr

— Dennis Kucinich (@Dennis_Kucinich) May 1, 2018

Tune in next Tuesday night at MSNBC to watch the results come in.

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, Bernie Sanders has made three endorsements—John Fetterman for Lieutenant Governor, Greg Edwards for Congress, and Jess King for Congress. (The race for governor is widely seen as a likely win for Democratic incumbent Tom Wolfe).

The Pennsylvania election is May 15.

From a fundraising email from Bernie Sanders:

If we are going to defeat right-wing Republicans in 2018 and 2020, we need to win in states that Trump won, like Pennsylvania. And, in my view, the only way we win in those states is by supporting progressive candidates who have the guts to defend working-class families - white, black, Latino, Asian American, Native American - and take on the power and greed of the billionaire class.

Here's some very good news. In Pennsylvania there are three strong progressive candidates who can win their primary fights and win the general election.

As you know, Donald Trump represents something we have never seen before in the history of the United States. It is not just that he represents the interests of the wealthy and powerful. It's that we have never had a president with more authoritarian tendencies than him.

The 2018 midterm elections will be long remembered as a pivotal moment in American history because, if we are successful, we can put an end to the disastrous Trump agenda. If we are not, we will have at least two more years of a rapid shift toward authoritarianism, the further normalization of corruption and the continued rise of oligarchy.

But we cannot defeat Trump and the Republican Party with the same playbook, or by supporting the same kind of candidates long favored by the political establishment and financial elite. That is how we got to where we are today.

That is why I am traveling to Pennsylvania later this week to support three strong progressive candidates: John Fetterman for Lieutenant Governor, Greg Edwards for Congress, and Jess King for Congress. Their primaries are on May 15, and they need your help now. So here is the part where I ask:

This is our chance to elect three great progressives who will help lead the fight against Donald Trump and the dangerous Republican agenda. They need our help to win in Pennsylvania.

Our job in 2018 is to take on and defeat Trump's authoritarianism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry. But we can only do that if we run candidates who can rally the American people around an agenda that works for them, not the billionaire class.

For more than a decade now, John Fetterman has been an outstanding progressive leader in Pennsylvania. From early in his career he has stood with the working families of the state as he advocated for a $15 per hour minimum wage, Medicare for all, marriage equality and ending the failed war on drugs. He has been an outspoken defender of women’s health, immigrant rights, racial justice and LGBTQ equality.

For the past 25 years, Greg Edwards has worked tirelessly to organize for justice in health care, education and economic dignity. The powerful grassroots movement behind Greg Edwards is championing Medicare for all, universal pre-k, debt-free college and raising the minimum wage, and he is living his values of unwavering inclusion by building the diverse coalition Democrats need to win in his district.

Jess King has seen firsthand how the biggest corporations have hurt workers and squashed competition. In Congress, she will work to pass Medicare for all, rein in Wall Street, break up corporate monopolies, and support the real job creators: small businesses in our local economies.

These are three great candidates you can be proud to support. Candidates like John, Greg and Jess will help us stop Trump while ushering in an era of strong progressive change in this country. Thank you for supporting them. They need our help.

In Solidarity,

Bernie Sanders