Biden is working to win progressives
Presumptive nominee prompts surge of grassroots activity
WASHINGTON – For Ean Tafoya, the political revolution is far from over.
That doesn’t mean he won’t vote for Joe Biden. “I’ll knock doors in a Bernie (Sanders) shirt for (Biden), to show people that our movement is still here, but that we believe in moving beyond this last four years,” Tafoya said.
Tafoya, 34, a climate activist from Denver, supported both of Sanders’ presidential runs. He said it was “heartbreaking” when Sanders dropped out of the race in early April; he received numerous calls from his friends, crying.
Although Tafoya said progressives who supported Sanders still need time to grieve and heal, he recognizes it would be far easier to pass their policies under a Democratic administration than a Republican one.
“Ultimately, it seems like we can get more progress through the initiatives that we ... care about through Biden than Trump,” Tafoya said.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is going to need young voters, many who identify as “progressive” and had supported Sanders’ campaign, to win the 2020 presidential election. Though young voters made up roughly 27% of voters in 2016, they are seen as essential for campaigns and are often relied on for the critical grassroots work of knocking on doors and activating voters.
The Biden campaign announced working groups focused on several issues of importance to progressives. Biden, who has been endorsed by Sanders, also has rolled out policy initiatives aimed at wooing progressive voters, including expanding governmentfunded health insurance through Medicare to people 60 and older and a debt forgiveness plan focused on students in low- and middle-income households.
Biden will have to balance courting progressives with maintaining his appeal to moderate voters in swing states, many of whom abandoned Hillary Clinton in 2016 but might not want to vote for Donald Trump again. The former vice president built much of his primary campaign around appealing to a broad swath of voters.
“Americans aren’t looking for revolution,” Biden told “TODAY” in late February, days before the South Carolina primary victory that revived his campaign. “They’re looking for progress. They’re looking for, ‘Tell me how you’re going to help me with my health care. Tell me you’ll make me safer.’ ”
Though Biden is making inroads with top progressive groups, several leaders noted they still want to know more about Biden’s plans.
“We think it is important that if Vice President Biden wants to win the youth vote, he has to move on the issues, so that when young people are looking at candidates and looking at the differences between the candidates on the issue, that they can get more excited that they see candidates that are actually championing what they care for,” said Sarah Audelo, executive director of Alliance for Youth Action.
Since Sanders dropped out of the Democratic race, progressive groups and the Biden campaign have created a dialogue. Last week’s announcement on the working groups was in part the fruit of that labor.
In the days after Sanders left the race, the Sunrise Movement, which focuses on climate change, along with six other groups focused on issues such as gun control, immigration and foreign policy urged Biden to adopt a litany of stances.
They asked Biden to commit to a $10 trillion Green New Deal stimulus package, legalization of marijuana, implementing a “wealth tax” and a plan to reduce gun deaths by 50% in ten years. Audelo said the issues the groups laid out are all important policies for young progressives and that Biden moving on these issues could create excitement for those voters.
“It is incumbent on the Biden campaign to hear the expertise that folks have and really follow their guidance in terms of policy change,” Audelo said of the working groups. “So that way, a lot of folks can be seen as surrogates hopefully for the campaign. They are the validators that the campaign really needs.”
Biden and Sanders worked to create the policy working groups that would address several issues that are particularly important to young progressives. The groups will be focused on the economy, education, criminal justice, immigration and climate change.
The working groups include allies of both Biden and Sanders.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, who have both said they are voting for Biden but previously endorsed Sanders, are each co-chairs of a group. Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, Maggie Thompson, former executive director of Generation Progress, and Marisa Franco, director of the Latinx group Mijente, are among the participants.
The policy groups will meet before the Democratic National Convention in August to make recommendations for the Democratic National Committee platform and to Biden.
The coalition of progressive groups called the appointments a “major win for youth organizations that are building political power for young people across the country.”
The campaign is focusing on engaging two types of progressives organizations: Traditional groups such as Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign, and new-wave groups, such as the Sunrise Movement and March for Our Lives, that attract younger and more diverse voters.
The Biden campaign was endorsed by the Progressive Turnout Project, which says it will invest $52.5 million to knock on more than 10.5 million doors in 17 battleground states this year.
Biden has been criticized by some on the left over his vote for the Iraq War and for his stance supporting the Hyde Amendment, a long-standing law that blocks federal funding for abortion in most cases. Biden said he no longer supports the amendment.
A recent USA TODAY/Suffolk poll showed that the vast majority of Sanders supporters (77%) said they will vote for Biden in the general election. But nearly 1 in 4 Sanders supporters (22%) said they would vote for a third-party candidate, vote for President Donald Trump, not vote in November or were undecided about who to vote for, according to the poll.