Days after New Hampshire, Sanders stumps in NC as Democrats’ latest front-runner
Vowing that “change is coming,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders returned to North Carolina Friday, days after winning the New Hampshire primary and becoming the latest front-runner in the Democratic presidential race.
“This 2020 election is the most consequential election in modern American history or maybe the entire history of our county,” he told more than 2,000 people at Belk Theater in uptown Charlotte. “Damn right we’re going to beat Donald Trump.”
After winning New Hampshire as well as the popular vote in the Iowa caucuses, Sanders has topped most national polls. Like other candidates, he’s turning his attention to Nevada and South Carolina, which hold their nominating contests this month, as well as North Carolina and other Super Tuesday states that vote March 3.
“Certainly he has the momentum coming out of Iowa and New Hampshire,” said political scientist Michael Bitzer of Catawba College. “The national polls have him ahead. But there’s still a lot of primaries to go.”
Sanders’ visit came a day after former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg barnstormed the Piedmont. Other candidates are expected this month.
At an earlier rally in Durham, Sanders tried to contrast his campaign with his opponents’ by saying it was funded not by “the billionaire class” but by a large army of small donors, and that he wanted to not only beat Trump but to “transform this country.”
“The status quo is not working. We want change,” he told the cheering crowd. “The establishment is getting nervous. That’s good.”
One billionaire candidate already has begun going after Sanders.
Businessman Tom Steyer began a new digital ad in Nevada that criticizes Sanders’ proposal for “Medicare for All” and questions its cost as well as its effect on private health care coverage.
President Donald Trump injected himself into the debate Friday.
“It is happening again to Crazy Bernie, just like last time, only far more obvious,” he tweeted. “They are taking the Democrat Nomination away from him, and there’s very little he can do. A Rigged System!”
Progressive agenda
Sanders blasted Trump as “the most dangerous president in the modern history of America.”
“The reason we’re going to win is that the American people realize ... we cannot continue to have a president of the United States who is a pathological liar, who is running a corrupt administration ... who thinks he is above the law. Who is a racist. A homophobe . . . and a religious bigot,” he told around 3,000 people in Durham. “And those are his good qualities.”
At both stops, Sanders offered a litany of progressive proposals on:
▪ Student debt: “If we can bail out the crooks on Wall Street,” he said, “we can cancel all student debt in America.”
▪ Climate change: He said he’s about to propose a sweeping climate change proposal modeled on the Green New Deal. He called the climate “an existential threat.”
“This is an issue we cannot run away from,” he said.
▪ Health care: Over four years, he would transform health care to “Medicare for all” and expand Medicare to cover everything from dental care to home health care.” That health care costs bankrupt some Americans is an “absolute disgrace,” he said.
“We’re going to put an end to that absurdity.”
He also promised to legalize marijuana and expunge convictions. He would ban the sale of assault weapons, enact universal background checks, create a path to U.S. citizenship for undocumented immigrants and end “a broken and racist criminal justice system.” And he blasted the “top 1%.”
“Folks on Wall Street are crying that they have to start paying their fair share of taxes,” he said. “I say to them, ‘Tough luck. Change is coming’.”
Durham resident Leroy Hinton, 58, said while he would support any Democrat, he hopes Sanders is the nominee.
“I like Bernie’s policies,” he said. “He’s out to help working folks, the underclass working folks.”
Alyssa Terry said his proposal to forgive student loans is a big part of why she supports Sanders. She’s around $28,000 in debt after graduating from N.C. State University.
Loyal base
At a news conference Friday, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis blasted his top Democratic Senate rivals for vowing to support their party’s nominee, even if it’s Sanders.
“If Erica Smith believes people in North Carolina, and if Cal Cunningham believes people in North Carolina want Bernie Sanders and his liberal, progressive policies in place, then they . . . will be soundly rejected in North Carolina,” Tillis told reporters in Cornelius.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Cotten called Sanders “an out-of-touch radical committed to hiking taxes on hardworking people.”
In 2016, Sanders finished 14 points behind Hillary Clinton in the N.C. primary. Some Democrats, including U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Joe Biden supporter, say they doubt he could win North Carolina.
Sanders supporter Ray McKinnon, a candidate for Mecklenburg County commissioner, took issue with that Friday.
“We will wait no longer,” he told the crowd as they awaited Sanders. “We will have revolution. We will have change...(Sanders) is very electable. We will show them he’s electable.”
But analysts are watching to see if he can grow his base of ardent supporters.
“His base is extremely loyal,” Bitzer said. “The question is, can he expand beyond that base and is he willing to expand beyond that base? He’s very firm in his policy and ideological approach, but that’s not the entire Democratic Party.”
Actors Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon warmed up the Charlotte crowd. Sarandon said Sanders will bring “real systemic change” and echoed someone in the crowd who shouted out “No centrism!”
Emi Miller, 72, a registered nurse from Matthews, said, “If there’s anyone who is going to save our country, it’s Bernie.”
“He’s been at this for 20-plus years,” she added. “He’s raised the bar of honesty. And he has gathered all the youth, which is almost an impossible task. Whether Bernie is successful at winning the nomination or not, there is not anything that is going to stop this movement.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 12:22 PM.
