Supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran for president in 2016 and 2020, have again suggested he "would have won" the 2024 presidential election if he were the Democratic nominee instead of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Following President-elect Donald Trump's election victory, in which he secured the Electoral College and popular vote, Sanders—an independent who caucuses with Democrats—issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing the Democratic party.
"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," Sanders wrote. "First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well."
He chastised Democratic leadership for defending "the status quo," noting that Americans "are angry and want change. And they're right."
In the days after Harris' loss, supporters of Sanders posted online criticizing the party, arguing that Sanders and his platform would have performed better.
Briahna Joy Gray, a podcast host and Sanders's former press secretary, criticized the Democratic economic platform in a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing, "Imagine if they [voters] could say 'tax the rich, free healthcare, living wage,'" adding, "anyway, Bernie would've won."
Other users, such as Reverend Cheri DiNovo, Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson, comedian Jeremy McLellan, and community organizer Angelica Dueñas, also posted on X that "Bernie would have won."
Newsweek reached out to the Democratic National Committee and Sanders's press team for comment via email on Thursday.
The refrain has been recycled from 2016 when Trump won the presidential election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In the 2016 Democratic primary, Sanders garnered around 19 percent of the vote. In 2020, he dropped out of the primary after receiving over 1,000 delegates.
Sanders was reelected for his fourth term as Vermont senator on Tuesday. He secured 63.3 percent of the vote, down from the 67.4 percent he won in 2018.
Some referenced Sanders's 2016 run, such as Krystal Ball, host of the Breaking Points podcast, who said that Sanders' progressive movement "could have saved" Democrats over the past eight years, adding that "Bernie's class first populism won over exactly the type of voters (Latinos, working class, bros, Joe Rogan!) that Dems now repel."
Exit polls have shown that Trump's support rose among male Latinos, people under 30, those living in rural areas, and moderate voters.
Journalist Murtaza Hussain echoed similar sentiments, writing Thursday morning that "Suppressing the Bernie movement in 2016 effectively destroyed the Democratic Party. That was a turning point year GOP also had an insurgency with Trump but they ultimately worked with him to some new kind of synthesis. The Democrats never got past their decrepit ancien regime."
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