Bernie Sanders Archives

Crowded field of candidates running for open St. Louis state Senate seat today

August 4, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Steven Roberts, D-St. Louis, on February 18, 2019 (photo courtesy of Ben Peters at House Communications)

Missouri’s primary election gets underway today and seven candidates are campaigning to replace State Senator Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis. Nasheed, who is term-limited and will leave office at the end of this year, represents a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Six of the seven candidates are Democrats, including State Representative Steven Roberts, St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Green, former Deputy State Auditor Michelle Sherod and former St. Louis school board member Bill Haas. Other Democrats include Jeremiah Church and McFarlane Duncan.

Roberts is the chairman of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, a former St. Louis city prosecutor and is a 2nd Lieutenant in the Missouri Air National Guard.

Michelle Sherod (Photo courtesy of her Twitter page)

Sherod was appointed as deputy state auditor by then-State Auditor Claire McCaskill. She later served on McCaskill’s U.S. Senate staff. Today, she runs her own consulting firm. Sherod has been endorsed by outgoing Sen. Nasheed.

Green was first elected to represent the 15th Ward in a Special Election in 2014 and was later re-elected in 2016. Prior to running for office, she worked with a variety of non-profit organizations, including Shalom House, Lemay Child and Family Center, and Childcare Aware of Missouri. In 2016, she was a surrogate for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

The winner of the primary faces Republican Michael Hebron in November’s general election.

Biden sweeps Sanders in Missouri Democratic primary (AUDIO)

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Biden sweeps Sanders in Missouri Democratic primary

The results are in: presidential candidate Joe Biden has won the Democratic presidential preference primary election by a landslide. Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has collected results from 100% of the state’s voting precincts.

Biden ended the night with 60% of the vote, compared to about 35% support for Bernie Sanders.

On the Republican side, the race was not competitive. President Donald Trump took about 97% of the vote.

Precincts reported about 660,000 Democrats voted today compared to about 309,000 Republicans.

LISTEN TO BIDEN VICTORY SPEECH (10:41)

Half of Missouri’s precincts report results of Presidential Preference Primary

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden

The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has election results from about 50% of the state’s voting precincts. Missouri is one of five states holding presidential preference primaries today.

On the Democratic side, presidential hopeful Joe Biden has been leading tonight. He holds about 59% of the vote. Bernie Sanders trails with about 33%.

As for Republicans, President Donald Trump has easily dominated with about 97% of the vote. In the 2016 General Election, Trump won Missouri by 19 points.

Precincts report so far that about 286,000 Democrats have voted today compared to about 195,000 Republicans.

Early results of Missouri Presidential Preference Primary Election

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has election results from about 30% of the state’s voting precincts. Missouri is one of five states holding presidential primaries today.

Mary Espinoza joins the crowd in Kansas City that rallied for Biden days before the primary

On the Democratic side, presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are in a battle for the state’s delegates. Biden leads in the polls with 59% of the vote. About 31% support Sanders.

Biden was in Kansas City and St. Louis on Saturday rallying supporters ahead of today’s election. His wife, Jill, visited Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis on Monday.

As for Sanders, he made a stop in downtown St. Louis on Monday. Sanders relied on an army of canvassers throughout the state.

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump has blown all the other candidates out of the water, as expected. He has about 97% of the vote.

(AUDIO) Political scientist on presidential primary: “Missouri matters this time”

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

For the first time in several years, Northwest Missouri State University political scientist Dan Smith says the state’s presidential preference primary matters. About 40% of Missouri voters are expected to head to the polls today to choose who they want to be president later this year. Smith says Super Tuesday results last week created a close race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination – putting Missouri in a unique position to be relevant nationally.

Professor Dan Smith (Photo courtesy of NWMSU)

“I’m pretty confident in saying Missouri matters this year,” he says. “We didn’t know it was going to matter two weeks ago. It’s very much undecided on the Democratic side and that means a lot as far as what the campaign is going to look like going forward. Because of Super Tuesday changing the race but making it now a two-person race, Missouri matters. We didn’t matter four years ago. We didn’t matter in a lot of these primaries because we’re after Super Tuesday.”

But after Super Tuesday, he says Sanders and Biden are not separated by many votes or delegates. He’s not sure which one will win the Democratic nomination in Missouri.

“We may get more attention than, I don’t think we’re going to be an afterthought because there’s only so much going on. And in some ways, we may get more attention than we would have gotten on Super Tuesday,” he says.

Smith says Missouri’s results today will matter more than in the General Election because today’s outcome could change the national results in November. Smith says President Trump is expected to win comfortably in Missouri today and in November.

“The question is, is turnout in the Democratic areas. I’ll say, this is true nationally, it’s very true in Missouri as well. Republican voters are more reliable, more consistent, more likely to vote. But there are more Democrats,” he says. “That’s true nationally. In Missouri, that’s not necessarily true. But if the Democrats turnout in large numbers, it’s relatively close. In 2016, turnout in Kansas City and St. Louis was not very good. In the suburbs, it was not very good. So Trump won essentially a landslide. If Democrats turnout in large numbers, it will be closer – not enough to flip the state. I don’t think there’s that much risk to Trump or the Republicans holding Missouri. But, it could be competitive enough that he has to campaign in the state if Democratic turnout is high. What we saw from Super Tuesday is there were some surprisingly high numbers.

For example, Smith cites Fairfax County in Virginia, where 100,000 more people voted in the Democratic primary last week than in 2016.

“That’s staggering numbers and they weren’t Sanders people. They were Biden people. He won the state by 30 points. That’s the kind of, if you will, enthusiasm or turnout numbers that we’re seeing in a lot of the states in the primaries,” he says. “That speaks to what we might be seeing in the fall with levels of turnout.”

Another reason why Missouri matters? The level of division at the Democratic National Convention.

“If Biden runs the table in the next couple of weeks, then it increases the likelihood that they come to some kind of compromise. If Biden becomes inevitable, if he has enough delegates when he gets to the Convention to win, then the Sanders people can’t contest it,” says Smith.

Today’s polls are open statewide from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

To listen to all of Smith’s remarks, click below.

Sanders rallies supporters in St. Louis before Tuesday’s presidential primary

March 9, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made his way to St. Louis today to tell Missouri voters why they should pick him in tomorrow’s presidential preference primary. Sanders and fellow Democrat Joe Biden are the two remaining viable party candidates trying to gather the most delegates in Tuesday’s election.

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders makes remarks during a campaign stop at Affton High School in Affton, Missouri on March 13, 2016. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

During his appearance at the Stifel Theatre in downtown St. Louis, Sanders spoke for about 45 minutes and was full of promises. He spent several minutes discussing better pay for workers and laid it on thick about taxing America’s wealthiest at a higher rate. He pledged to boost the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

“Here in Missouri and my own state of Vermont, you’ve got a lot of working people working two or three jobs. You’ve got workers who are worried that they can’t afford to send their kids to college,” says Sanders. “You’ve got half of the older workers in America, people 55 or older, you know how much they have in the bank saved for retirement? Nothing! Now think about it – you’re a 60-year-old worker in St. Louis or Kansas City, you worked your whole life and you’ve got nothing in the bank. Maybe you’ll have $15,000 in social security a year, if they don’t cut it.”

He discussed healthcare for all Americans and bashed companies for alleged price gouging of healthcare and medication costs. Sanders vowed to make a coronavirus vaccine free under his administration.

Other pledges he made were to rebuild America’s “crumbling” infrastructure, make public colleges and universities tuition-free and triple funding for the country’s low-income Title I schools.

“We’ve got school buildings all across this country that are crumbling,” says Sanders. “Kids can’t even drink the water in some school buildings. We know that there is nothing more important than educating our kids for the future of this country. What’s important is not giving tax breaks to billionaires is to making sure that teachers get adequate compensation. Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires and spending more than the next eleven countries on the military, we will pay our teachers at least $60,000 a year.”

Sanders briefly hit on topics about gun violence, fixing America’s “broken” immigration and criminal justice systems and tackling the war on drugs. He wants to put an end to private companies detaining people.

Sanders also took some jabs at Biden. He says the former vice president supported the War in Iraq and the 2008 bailout of Wall Street.

“Joe voted for disastrous trade agreements which have been horrific for the Midwest – agreements like NAFTA and PNTR with China. I helped to lead the effort against those terrible trade agreements. Over the years, for a variety of reasons, Joe Biden has been on the floor of the U.S. Senate talking about the need to cut social security benefits. I have been leading the fight to expand social security benefits,” says Sanders.

President Donald Trump is expected to overwhelmingly win the Republican vote in tomorrow’s election.

Polls will be open statewide from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

To hear Sanders’ entire St. Louis speech, click below.

Biden, Sanders come to Missouri before Tuesday’s primary

March 6, 2020 By Ashley Byrd

(EDITOR’S NOTE: STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED TO INCLUDE THAT SENATOR SANDERS HAS CANCELED MONDAY’S RALLY IN KANSAS CITY)

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will make their appeal in person to Show-me state voters. The two remaining viable candidates to be the Democratic Party nominee will hold rallies in Missouri over the next few days.

Biden will hold two public events Saturday, March 7:

Doors Open: 11:00 AM CT
Where: Kiener Plaza Park, 500 Chestnut Street, St. Louis, MO 63101

Event with Emanuel Cleaver in Kansas City, MO
Doors Open: 4:15 PM CT
Where: WWI Museum and Memorial, 2 Memorial Dr, Kansas City, MO

Sanders’ public event will be in St. Louis on Monday March 9th at 11 a.m.
Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market Street, St. Louis. Doors open at 10 a.m.

** Senator Sanders has canceled Monday’s Kansas City rally due to scheduling constraints.

Missouri’s presidential preference primary is on Tuesday. Even though they’re no longer in the race, Missouri’s ballot will still include Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, Cory Booker, Pete Buttgieg, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro, Mike Bloomberg and others.

Missouri Democratic Party cancels Sunday’s presidential candidate forum in KC

March 4, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Democratic Party has canceled Sunday’s presidential forum in Kansas City. In a statement today from the party, it says the Democratic presidential candidate field has narrowed significantly, with a possibility that it will continue to narrow even further in the coming days. The party says there are now too few candidates to make the “Show-Me Showdown” event viable.

Missouri Democratic Party cancels Sunday’s presidential candidate forum in KC

“Instead, we will welcome the remaining candidates to Missouri in the days ahead in preparation for the March 10 Primary,” the press release says.

Left in the race, as of now, include Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Tulsi Gabbard.

A press release from Biden’s campaign says the former vice president will be in Kansas City and St. Louis on Saturday. Sanders’s campaign says the Vermont U.S. Senator opened four offices in Missouri over the weekend – in Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia.