Vulnerable Democrats brace for Sanders atop ticket [View all]

[RandySF]

Sanders’s embrace of liberal policies such as “Medicare for All,” a ban on fracking and debt-free college education has made him a piñata for Republican campaign operatives, who are hoping to link centrist Democrats to Sanders’s “socialist” label at every turn. Well aware of the strategy, those Democrats are already girding against the attacks.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), a Bloomberg backer, said he spent last week’s recess reminding his constituents, “I’m not a socialist; I believe in capitalism.” But he quickly added: “The fact that I have to remind people is not a good thing.”

Freshman Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), who flipped a GOP-held seat, repeatedly declined to say he would campaign alongside Sanders in his Southern California district. It is, he said, “too far into the future” to commit.

And Rep. TJ Cox (Calif.), another vulnerable freshman Democrat, tried his best to downplay Sanders’s democratic socialist label while arguing that anyone would be better than Trump.

“It’s not about what [politicians] are calling themselves; it’s about their principles and what they stand on,” Cox told The Hill. “You’ve got one party and one guy [Trump] who is saying … they’re trying to cut Social Security and Medicare. We have one guy who is trying to protect it and enhance the social safety net for the American people.”

If Sanders wins the nomination, most Democrats say they’ll rally around him. But in the same breath, some are warning that Sanders would act as a drag on vulnerable Democrats down-ballot, perhaps costing the party its majority in the House and its chances of flipping the Senate.



https://thehill.com/homenews/house/484874-vulnerable-democrats-brace-for-sanders-atop-ticket