Can Bernie Beat The Establishment Machine In South Carolina?

You may remember Gloria Tinubu from last year when we endorsed her run for Congress and she penned several guest posts for us. She ran in 2012 and 2014 and came closer than any other Democrat to winning one of South Carolina's gerrymandered red districts. In 2012 she took 121,418 votes (45%) against Tom Rice's 147,750 (55%). This year she's campaigning for Bernie in South Carolina. "Sanders is in the tradition of President Franklin Roosevelt," she said, "who led our parents and grandparents through one of the most challenging times in our nation’s history. Like President Roosevelt, Bernie Sanders is fighting to protect our democratic way of life and our four freedoms."

No matter what independent-minded Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire did, the Clinton Machine has always felt confident that South Carolina would serve as her firewall against Bernie Sanders' far more populist message. And it may. The latest CBS poll shows her way ahead of him, 68-25%. That may be tough to overcome but yesterday he announced his South Carolina leadership team and it includes three of the most progressive members of the state legislature all of whom were willing to buck the party machine-- Terry Alexander of Florence, Wendell Gilliard of Charleston and Robert Williams of Darlington.

“Sen. Sanders has the feel, the attitude of the common person, folks who are struggling day-by-day who are working everyday and still cannot pay their bills, ... do not have health insurance ... and cannot support their families,” Alexander said, introducing Sanders who met briefly with media Saturday afternoon.

Sanders is “the strongest candidate here for African Americans and he will bring about change,” Alexander added.

Democratic voters will play a big role in the state’s Feb. 27 presidential primary because they make up more than half of the party’s electorate.

Other members of Sanders’ state committee are elected officials from around the state and Democratic Party and Black Lives Matter activists, according to the campaign. They include:

• Allen Bailey, Sumter County Democratic Party chairman
• Eugene Baten, Sumter County councilman
• Earl Coleman, McCormick County councilman
• Donna Dewitt, former president of the S.C. AFL-CIO
• Thomas Dixon, president of the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment
• Annejanet Harp, S.C. Democratic Party Faith co-chairwoman
• Teresa Harper, Aiken Democratic Party first vice chairwoman
• William Lawrence, S.C. Democratic Party veterans chairman
• James McCain, Sumter County councilman
• Lucinda Nesmith, Florence County Party chairwoman
• Naomi Sanders, former Sumter County Council chairwoman
• Wanda Stringfellow, former Chester mayor
• Timothy Taylor, Atlantic Beach police chief
• Tom Turnipseed, former state senator
• Stephen Wukela, Florence mayor

Poet, painter and activist Omari Fox, the leader of Columbia’s Black Lives Matter organization, is also backing Sanders. He told the media that "Sanders has been a champion of the Black Lives Matter movement and his policies to end the disastrous War on Drugs and the failed era of mass incarceration are the strongest of any candidate in the race. I support Sanders’ civil rights platform and his positions to address institutional racism and structural inequality."

If you'd like to help Bernie's campaign and the campaign of progressives running for Congress who have endorsed Bernie, here's the Blue America ActBlue page where you can do that. Here's Bernie yesterday speaking at the South Carolina Democratic Women's Council:





UPDATE: Which Democrat Is Prepared To Take On The Establishment?

During an interview with Gloria Borgia for CNN, over the weekend, she asked him what it meant that Hillary has 31 endorsements by senators and that he has none. He had an interesting response: "It tells you that one of us is a candidate of the establishment; one of us is involved in establishment politics and establishment economics and it says that maybe the other candidate is prepared to take on the establishment." Notice how Bernie never said that Hillary is the establishment... which she certainly is-- not the best place to be, electorally, in 2015, given the mood of the country.