The News
Bernie Sanders isn’t done yet shaping the Democratic fields in must-win Senate races.
After Graham Platner elbowed Gov. Janet Mills out of the way in Maine’s Democratic primary — with a big boost from Sanders’s early endorsement — the Vermont Independent is forging ahead in two more primaries that pit progressives against more centrist candidates.
Sanders will stump for Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on Saturday and insurgent progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan on Sunday, his latest salvos in the party’s primary clashes in key Senate races.
In an interview, Sanders said Mills’s decision to drop out of the race is “indicative of the kind of changes we’re seeing in this country. The American people are tired of status quo politics. The very rich get richer. Everybody else struggles.”
“Platner is somebody who’s standing up to big money and fighting for the working class. And I think, in Maine and all over this country, that is a force that is not going to be defeated,” Sanders said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee subtly prefer Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan; progressives believed party leaders also wanted Rep. Angie Craig to win the Senate nod in Minnesota and made clear they wanted leaders to stay out of her race against Flanagan.
Sanders said his campaign endorsements are “not a question of Schumer.
“It’s a question of establishment folks who work with the moneyed interests in status quo politics versus those of us who stand with working families and understand the status quo is not working,” he added.
Sanders is part of a group of Senate Democratic caucus members who are endorsing in contested primaries and asking party leaders to stay out. Their advocacy is annoying other Democrats who see a double standard.
As one Democratic strategist put it: “Rules for me and not for thee. No one can shape primaries, unless it’s me and the way I want them to be shaped.”
Know More
Republicans want El-Sayed to win the nomination in Michigan to run against former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., seeing him as a weaker general election candidate. They also insist Minnesota could be competitive under the right conditions, although they have not made ad reservations in the state for the fall. Republicans haven’t won a Senate race in Michigan since 1994 or in Minnesota in 2002
Democrats would lose their shot at taking the majority if they fall short in either state, making the primaries critical — particularly in swingier Michigan.
“In the current environment, we’re going to win in Michigan,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott told Semafor.
“I believe that Minnesota, by the way, is not out of the picture … Michele Tafoya is within four or five points of the two likely candidates,” the South Carolinian added.
Sanders is also jumping into a contested House race and stumping for Brian Poindexter in his primary in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, a seat currently held by Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio. That primary is on Tuesday.
Notable
- Republicans are preparing an “all-out assault” on Platner in the Maine race, we reported this week.