USA TODAY International Edition
Sanders’ ‘ endorsement’ YUGE for some
Gaudiano is a Washington- based reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK.
Last month, when I asked Bernie Sanders if he would ever endorse Hillary Clinton, he looked straight into my iPhone camera, furrowed his brow and said, “I’m gonna endorse YOU!”
It was one of our more unusual exchanges in the seven years I’ve been covering the Vermont senator for the USA TODAY NETWORK. Typically, he just interrupts me with his signature “bu, bu, bu” when I ask a question he doesn’t like.
I guess we can all agree now that he was joking. He is backing Hillary Clinton — not me — and he says he’ll do everything he can to help her defeat GOP nominee Donald Trump.
I told Sanders later last month that his “endorsement” of me was mentioned by Yahoo News. Friends offered to vote for me and even work for my “campaign” when I posted the story on Facebook.
“I’ve ruined your good reputation, huh?” he responded.
So I asked him then, if you do end up endorsing Hillary Clinton, what happens to me? Sanders laughed, heartily. “Politics is a tough game,” he said. “That’s the way it is, Nicole.”
Sanders may now feel that way himself as he winds down his campaign for the Democratic nomination. There’s no denying he has had quite a run. He heads to the Democratic National Convention with a key speaking slot Monday after winning 22 states, raising about $ 228 million and becoming the unlikely darling of legions of young people.
My favorite description of him came from Hampton University student Deja Stewart, who forced me to confront my four unhip decades when she called him “somebody’s savage grandpa.” Come again? “Savage,” she said, meaning that he’s “radical enough and doesn’t care what people think” and says what he believes “no matter what.”
What 74- year- old grandfather of seven wouldn’t love that ?
I met with Sanders in his office two days after his endorsement of Clinton to discuss where all this mojo will take him. He’s looking ahead to many more endorsements than Clinton’s — and mine.
One of the organizations he will soon launch, Our Revolution, will help recruit, train and fund progressive candidates’ campaigns, from school board to Congress. He plans to support, in some fashion, at least 100 candidates running for a wide range of offices through 2016 and perhaps beyond.
“What is absolutely imperative is that we keep the movement alive,” he told me. “If we are successful, what it will mean is that the progressive message and the issues that I campaigned on will be increasingly spread throughout this country.”
The mission is similar to Howard Dean’s following his 2004 presidential campaign when he launched Democracy for America, an organization that endorsed Sanders before backing Clinton and that is working with Sanders on this next project. Given Sanders’ electoral success, his endorsements will carry “a great deal of weight” and help bring candidates the “grass- roots firepower” they need to win, DFA spokesman Neil Sroka said.
Would you say, in Sanders parlance, his impact could be YUGE? “That’s fine,” Sroka said.
So far, Sanders has seen mixed results after raising more than $ 2.5 million for 21 candidates since May. Zephyr Teachout, a New York congressional candidate, won her primary. Nevada Democrat Lucy Flores, his top recipient, and Eric Kingson of New York, lost theirs.
One Sanders- endorsed candidate to watch is Tim Canova, the Florida law professor who is challenging Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair, in Florida’s Aug. 30 primary. Sanders said he suspects he’ll campaign for Canova.
Sanders lost that district 68%31% in Florida’s presidential primary. But his endorsement brought Canova a flood of cash and media attention.
“I get endorsed by Bernie, and immediately I’m on MSNBC and CNN and Fox,” Canova said.
That wasn’t my experience. My fame ended with the twoparagraph mention in Yahoo News.
Politics is a tough game.
“Politics is a tough game. That’s the way it is, Nicole.” Sen. Bernie Sanders