‘He’s not going to be the nominee.’ Miami’s House Dems aren’t considering Bernie
BY ALEX DAUGHERTY / Miami Herald / FEB 14, 2020
miamiherald.com
Bernie Sanders may have emerged with the most votes from the first two contests in the 2020 Democratic primary, but Miami’s House Democrats echoed many lawmakers in Washington this week when they said it’s far too soon to consider the prospect of a democratic socialist as the party’s nominee.
Sanders’ rise has set off alarm bells in the House of Representatives, where Democrats won a majority in 2018 in part by defeating Republicans in districts President Donald Trump won in 2016.
Even asking the question about whether they would support Sanders elicited eye rolls and stone-faced stares from three of Miami’s four congressional Democrats.
“He’s not going to be the nominee,” Rep. Donna Shalala said when asked if she would campaign for Sanders should he win the nomination. “That’s a hypothetical question and since I don’t think he’s going to be the nominee, I don’t have to answer the question.”
“How many delegates has he won?” Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell said. “I’m seriously considering endorsing another candidate, that’s my answer to you.”
“We’re a long way from who is going to be our nominee and so that speculation is really not helpful at all,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said.
Their cool reception to Sanders’ candidacy underscores the challenges the self-described democratic socialist faces in Florida, where establishment-friendly candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg enjoy more support among elected officials.
Six of Florida’s 13 Democrats have made a 2020 presidential endorsement, four for Biden and two for Bloomberg. Sanders has seven endorsements from the entire House of Representatives, including high-profile Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Shalala, Mucarsel-Powell and Wasserman Schultz, who have remained neutral in the 2020 race so far, represent the types of districts the Democratic nominee will need to win in order to defeat Trump in Florida and in competitive states around the country.
Shalala and Mucarsel-Powell represent majority-Latino districts with credible Republican challengers. Wasserman Schultz represents a largely suburban, wealthier district with lots of Jewish and establishment-minded Democrats.
Only Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Biden supporter and the only Miami Democrat currently endorsing a 2020 candidate, said she’ll support Sanders if he emerges victorious.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Wilson said when asked if she would campaign for Sanders after the convention. “Listen, there’s a lot of people concerned about every one of the candidates. I will support anyone who becomes the nominee because my main goal is to beat Donald J. Trump. I think any one of them can beat Trump. ... He’s an impeached president.”
Wilson represents an urban, majority-African-American district where Democrats must come close to Barack Obama’s voter turnout levels in 2008 and 2012 to offset Republican advantages in Florida’s suburbs and rural areas.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted her members are “calm, cool and collected” about the 2020 primary during a press conference on Thursday.
She denied that the wide-open primary, where Sanders appears to have left-leaning voters all to himself while moderate Democrats are left with a host of options, has rattled lawmakers worried about losing their seats with a democratic socialist at the top of the ticket.
“I can hear you all say, oh, we’re all in a panic, the established Democrats. I’m like, is there some establishment that I don’t know about around here?” Pelosi asked reporters. “We respect the process. The people will winnow the field.”
Some swing-seat Democrats are speaking out against Sanders.
South Carolina Rep. Joe Cunningham, who represents a district Trump won by 14 percentage points in 2016, offered an anti-endorsement of Sanders earlier this week ahead of the state’s primary on Feb. 29.
“South Carolinians don’t want socialism,” Cunningham told the Charleston Post and Courier. “We want to know how you are going to get things done and how you are going to pay for them. Bernie’s proposals to raise taxes on almost everyone is not something the Lowcountry wants and not something I’d ever support.”
He refused to consider the question of whether he’d support Sanders if he wins the party’s nomination: “Bernie Sanders will not be the nominee.”
The bellyaching on Sanders hasn’t yet reached the level of Miami Republicans during Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, when former Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said they wouldn’t vote for Trump when he became the GOP nominee. But it’s still early in the nomination process.
Wasserman Schultz, the former leader of the Democratic Party during the 2016 cycle, said she’s thinking more about Congress right now.
“We are a long way from who our nominee is going to be and at this point I am focused on making sure we are holding on to our House majority,” Wasserman Schultz said. |
