Unity push draws in Kansas backers for Sanders, but not all
photo by: Mike Yoder
Topeka ? A push from Bernie Sanders for unity behind Hillary Clinton was pulling his Kansas supporters into the Democratic presidential nominee’s camp Tuesday, though not all of them fully.
The state’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia cast only 14 of its 37 votes for Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, and her total included four party-leader superdelegates.
Twenty-three delegates voted for Sanders, the Vermont senator, in line with his commanding victory in the state’s presidential caucuses in March. Party rules required the delegates to vote for the candidates to which they were bound unless they were formally released.
Sanders praised Clinton and endorsed her enthusiastically in his Monday night convention speech, then after the roll call on the nomination Tuesday, asked that her candidacy be acclaimed by a voice vote. Sanders delegate Chris Pumpelly, a Wichita communications consultant, called it “a beautiful moment.”
“What you saw in the nomination count today was a reflection of the rich diversity of America and the Democratic Party,” he said in text to The Associated Press from the convention.
Julie Perry, a Sanders delegate from the Kansas City suburb of Mission, said she’ll continue to work for issues important to her as a registered nurse and a labor representative for National Nurses United, the largest union for registered nurses. Those issues include creating universal health coverage modeled on the federal Medicare program and blocking the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
“I will not lower my expectations and now more than ever, I expect real change,” she said in text from the convention.
She acknowledged that losing to Republican nominee Donald Trump “is not an option.” But she added of Clinton, “She’ll need to earn my vote based on her progress on the issues of our Political Revolution.”
Sanders delegate Sage TeBeest, a Wamego web developer and a lifelong Democrat, said she is sad to see his campaign end but said she is now “reinvigorated to continue the revolution.”
“Bernie has been the catalyst for a new generation to take up the fight and embody the mantle of activist and that means supporting the Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton,” she said, also in a text.
And Pumpelly said the party’s platform is “the most progressive in the history of the Democratic Party.” Among other things, it calls for raising the federal minimum wage and overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic Citizens United decision that has allowed millions of dollars of unregulated independent, special-interest election expenditures.
Joan Wagnon, a Clinton delegate and former Topeka mayor and state Democratic Party chairwoman, said she thinks that with his call for unity behind Clinton in his convention speech Monday night, “Bernie really sealed the deal.”