Where we’re at:
3979 pledged delegates (771 additional superdelegates who can vote on the second round)
1991 delegates needed to win outright with a 50% +1 majority on the first round
1651 delegates allocated, 2328 delegates outstanding
Biden |
Sanders |
Warren |
Bloomberg |
Buttigieg |
823 |
663 |
69 |
61 |
26 |
7 for Klobuchar, 2 for Gabbard
Biden just won Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, and Mississippi. Sanders is ahead in North Dakota. They’re tied in Washington, as the vote count continues there (as it also does in California, Texas, etc.).
Anything can happen.
I want to see them tested side by side on the debate stage on Sunday.
While it’s unfortunate that we are down to two old white straight men, their ideologies and campaign methodologies herald from the two distinctive major political approaches within the party. I want to see both of them run all the way to the Democratic National Convention, to give the primary electorate in every state a real choice of standard-bearer and a say in the direction of the party. A big part of democracy is that if everyone gets a fair say, then even those who supported the side that did not prevail can find legitimacy in the process. I actually want to see all of the delegates vote and not have a few state delegations vote and the rest hand-wave in the victor by acclimation. Let us see the process through, let us make it official, let us record a full representation of the voters. Let us make it less of an exclusive club and more of a democratic party in form and in consequence.
I support Bernie Sanders for president as the candidate who can rally mainstream Democrats, leftists, independents, and Americans of all stripes—even fickle and low-propensity general election voters—together into a diverse movement to challenge Republican fascists, billionaire magnates, and states of international organized criminality, to lead the country with moral clarity and democratized power with life-changing policies like the Green New Deal, universal health care, and material liberty and justice for all.
Meanwhile, to play it “safe” and attempt to risk nothing would actually be to risk everything. Let us not fall into the falsely comfortable assumption that the tried and familiar is the surest refuge, not after that approach has failed so catastrophically before (2000, 2004, 2016), and not after seeing how that mode of politics was a major contributor to how we ended up in this awful spot.
No, better things are in fact possible. Amidst America’s stupefyingly dire condition, we have a real opportunity here. Let us not “throw away our shot.”
May the best candidate win.