Ilhan is finishing up her remarks, Bernie on shortly.
“Ilhan and I share a common link as the descendants of families who fled violence and poverty, and who came to this country as immigrants. But that is not just my story, or Ilhan's story — that is the story of America."
— @BernieSanders with @IlhanMN in Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/bUGVwhHqpl— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) November 4, 2019
More in the comments section!
Bernie Sanders announces AOC will stump in Iowa for him
The Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez events will Iowa will be open to the public. The schedule is:
6 p.m., Friday, Nov. 8: Council Bluffs Rally with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez at Iowa Western Community College, Reiver Arena, 2700 College Road, Council Bluffs.
Noon, Saturday, Nov. 9: Des Moines Climate Crisis Summit with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Drake University, Bell Center, 1421 27th St., Des Moines. Transportation will be provided to Iowa State University and Grinnell College students.
6:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 9: Coralville Rally with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, 300 E. Ninth St., Coralville. A shuttle will run from the University of Iowa campus to the Coralville Marriott Hotel before and after the rally.
More news, videos, & tweets in the comments!
Happy Endorsement of Bernie by Rashida Tlaib
Sanders regains footing after heart attack
Since Sen. Bernie Sanders’ triumphant rally in Queens, New York, last Sunday, the Vermont senator has regained momentum after his heart attack in early October.
Sanders’ bid for the Democratic presidential nomination sagged in the aftermath of heart surgery that left him sidelined for two weeks. But after a strong performance on the debate stage last week and the biggest campaign event of the Democratic primary season with 25,000 fans, Sanders’ polls have bumped up.
In the weeks leading up to the heart attack, Sanders’ numbers stagnated, trailing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden in national polls.
On Tuesday, Emerson College published a nationwide poll that had Sanders moving back into second place with 25%, yo-yoing with Warren who moved back into third position with 21%. Biden still leads the pack, but by a slim margin, at 27%.
Despite that uptick, Sanders has lost ground with primary voters who are gravitating to Warren, and the Vermont senator will need to redouble his efforts in order to win over former supporters, according to Brendan Kane, a research assistant for the Emerson College survey.
“To create a winning coalition in the primary, Sanders will need to win back more of the voters who supported him in 2016 from Warren than he is currently receiving,” Kane said in a statement.
In a CNN poll released on Wednesday, Sanders and Warren are neck and neck for second place. Warren is at 19% and Sanders is just behind with 16%. Both progressive candidates are well behind Biden, who at 34% is now at his strongest showing in CNN polling since he announced his candidacy for president in April.
Sanders’ uptick in the polls comes after he received endorsements from Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who are part of the progressive Congressional group nicknamed “The Squad.”
After Ocasio-Cortez joined Sanders in Queens, New York, for his rally, Omar is scheduled to attend a Nov. 3 Sanders rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Another member of the group, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., is expected to publicly endorse Sanders for president during a rally in Detroit, Michigan, Sunday evening.
Riding this momentum, the Sanders campaign unveiled a plan to legalize marijuana in the first 100 days in office.
Sanders outlined his intention to make cannabis legal in August — when he announced his criminal justice reform plan. The formal announcement last week coincided with President Donald Trump’s speech at a justice forum in the early primary state of South Carolina.
While Sanders has stabilized in national polls, he is behind other top candidates in Iowa.
In an Iowa State University survey of likely Iowa Caucus attendees published Thursday, Warren moved into first place at 28%, with South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg second at 20%, and Sanders coming in third at 18%. Biden, meanwhile, who fell to 12% in the poll, slipped to fourth place.
On the same day the Iowa poll was released, news broke that Sanders had won the endorsement of Stacey Walker, a rising political star in Iowa who boasts an impressive organizing apparatus, according to Politico.
Walker told Politico he backed Sanders because he believes the nation needs a “bold leader,” and “as a black man living in America, I’ve had enough of politicians telling me we have to scale back our dreams and ambitions.”
Despite being down in the polls, the Sanders team is confident it will win Iowa and earn the much coveted momentum it needs heading into New Hampshire.
“We have the biggest volunteer base in the state. We’re making massive investments on TV and digital. And we’re not going to stop until we win,” said Bill Neidhardt, deputy Iowa director for the campaign, on Twitter Friday.
Other noteworthy…
Bernie Sanders and Rep. Rashida Tlaib are currently visiting the Brightmoor Connection Food Pantry in Detroit, talking about poverty, food and water scarcity, and corporate greed. pic.twitter.com/dFuy3NGmuK
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) October 27, 2019
Jack White to Perform at Bernie Sanders’ Detroit Rally
Rock star and former White Stripes frontman Jack White will join U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday.
White, who was born in Detroit and graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1993, will perform a set before speeches from Sanders and Tlaib. Detroit-area activists and leaders will join Sanders and Tlaib to discuss racial, environmental, and economic justice, as well as the impact of corporate power on working Americans.
In 2016, White expressed his distaste for President Donald Trump when his Detroit-founded record company, Third Man Records, released T-shirts with the words “Icky Trump” on the front. The language on the T-shirts was a play on the White Stripes’ 2007 album and song titled “Icky Thump.”
The rally will begin at 5 p.m. on Sunday in the Arena Gymnasium of Cass Technical High School, which is located at 2501 Second Ave. in Detroit. Doors open at 3:30 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public
This crowd is fired up, energy all the way up!
We’re ready for @RashidaTlaib and @BernieSanders #Bernie2020 #BernieInMI #BernieInDetroit pic.twitter.com/Ip2yEbFrGK
— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) October 27, 2019
More news, tweets, videos in the comments section. Will post a link to the rally closer to 4 CT. Join us!
The Dem Presidential Townhall is jointly sponsored by LULAC and Newsmax (ugh). Beto, Tulsi, Julian, and Bernie are the participants. It starts at 7 CT/ET and is being held in Des Moines.
Immigration Reform will be one of the hot topics tonight.
I believe it will be livestreamed on Newsmax TV, which is available through most cable and satellite channels. I believe you can watch it live through the link below.
From WHO TV (Des Moines):
Top Iowa Latino Leader: Two Presidential Campaigns Paying Attention Most Attention to His Community
Yes, Democratic presidential candidates are paying more attention during this 2020 campaign cycle to the growing Latinx community in Iowa compared to the 2016 cycle. But, no, not all are doing that equally, according to League of United Latin American Council 307 President Joe Enriquez Henry.
“The candidates seem to be paying more attention but not all the candidates are paying attention,” Henry said.
He singled out two campaigns–Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro–for paying the most attention to LULAC members. He said California Senator Kamala Harris’ campaign has reached out the Iowa Asian and Latino Coalition, which endorsed her in the Democratic presidential field.
Note: Henry personally has endorsed Castro for president. LULAC, as a statewide organization, has not endorsed a candidate for president.
Henry hopes that campaigns will increase outreach to Latin community members in the state. “There needs to be even more because we plan to be one out of every four caucus goers next time around,” he explained of his organization’s 2020 efforts, “In 2016, we were one out of every eight.”
LULAC efforts have resulted in 53,000 Latin community members registered to vote in the state, doubling the total from 15 years ago, Henry said. But he said that he believes there are 75,000 eligible members of the community, meaning he sees more progress that his group needs to make before the February 3, 2020 caucuses.
LULAC hosts a town hall event with four presidential candidates Thursday night in Des Moines. Henry expects 500-1,000 people in the audience, who are able to question the candidates.
Bernie had a good town hall about “Ending Corporate Greed” in Marshalltown. He just finished about 10 min ago. Here’s the FB link:
What else is on your mind? See you in the comments!
(photo courtesy of The Nation)
Don’t be surprised if Sanders becomes the kingmaker of the convention
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rejoined the campaign trail in Tuesday night’s debate for the first time since his heart attack this month. During his time convalescing, conventional wisdom has effectively ruled him out as a potential nominee and concluded that he will have to drop out if, as polls suggest, he fails to win any of the four early contests. His huge third-quarter fundraising haul — combined with the Democratic delegate rules — show why this wisdom might be wrong.
Sanders’s $25.3 million in new contributions last quarter shows that his backers’ enthusiasm has not dimmed. He continues to rake in more money from his committed band of 1 million small-donor loyalists despite slipping in national polls. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) may have surged in support among Democratic progressives at Sanders’s expense, but that has not yet impacted his appeal to his base.
This enthusiasm gives Sanders what other candidates whose support flags don’t: staying power. Rather than spend time and effort chasing big-dollar donors whose support is often contingent on good poll numbers, Sanders can actively campaign secure in the knowledge that his army will keep sending political ammo. It also contributes to good press, as the media won’t be writing about a campaign on death watch as fundraising numbers disappoint.
snip
The Democrats’ proportional allocation of delegates is key to understanding why Sanders could stay in the race despite finishing third. Unlike Republicans, who give states great leeway to set their own rules about allocating delegates, Democrats have a national, one-size-fits-all approach. Every state must give delegates according to that person’s share of the popular vote if he or she gets 15 percent or more. That means Sanders will pick up delegate votes as long as he hits that threshold — and polls suggest he will in most states.
That sets up the strong chance that Sanders would be the kingmaker at next summer’s Democratic convention. Suppose the other two current front-runners, Warren and former vice president Joe Biden, keep finishing first and second. If Sanders nevertheless stays in the race and picks up 15 to 20 percent of the delegates in each state, neither Biden nor Warren would have enough pledged delegates to win the nomination. Democratic Party officials who have automatic delegate posts — the “superdelegates” — cannot vote on the convention’s first ballot, according to rules changes forced on the Democratic National Committee by Sanders backers. That means that Sanders would be in a position to choose the next nominee by cutting a deal with one of the other two.
Sanders has defied conventional wisdom before, shocking the experts with his strong 2016 showing. Assuming his health holds up, don’t be surprised if he shocks conventional wisdom again and ultimately becomes the most important Democrat in the country next July.
Got other news, tweets, etc? Post ’em in the comments! This is an afternoon/evening thread. The other one was gettin’ kinda long.
