WASHINGTON — Dozens of Democrats across the party’s political spectrum quickly endorsed Kamala Harris for president over the last 72 hours, but Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., says he’s not ready to join them just yet.
Sanders said Tuesday evening that he hopes Harris will defeat Donald Trump in November, telling reporters: “I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure that she becomes president” — but with a caveat that he needs to see more from her.
Sanders stopped short of an endorsement, saying that Harris needs to outline a specific plan to help working-class Americans before he will formally back her campaign.
“I look forward to strongly supporting her. But I think if she is going to win, she’s going to have to focus a great deal of attention on the plight of the American working class, come up with some very specific suggestions as to how she’s going to address the reality that 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck,” Sanders said, though he did not outline what specifics he hopes to see from the vice president.
Harris has “to make it clear that she’s on the side of the working class of this country. If she does that, she’s going to win and I think she can win big.”
Asked whether Harris’ choice of a running mate will be important to his endorsement, Sanders said, “Yes, it is.”
Sanders had demanded similar commitments of President Joe Biden before supporting him in the past. The Vermont senator has tended to seize opportunities to elevate his key issues, like expanding Social Security and raising the minimum wage. In fact, Sanders had publicly backed Biden up until the moment he dropped out of the 2024 race, saying the president still had a path to victory if he supported expanded Medicare benefits, a bigger child tax credit and tax hikes on the wealthy to preserve Social Security.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a fellow progressive, had also backed Biden until the end of his campaign as she pressed him to embrace a bolder agenda. But she endorsed Harris hours after Biden exited the race on Sunday.
“Now more than ever, it is crucial that our party and country swiftly unite to defeat Donald Trump and the threat to American democracy,” Ocasio-Cortez said on X.
Forty-eight Democratic senators have endorsed Harris, along with 175 House members, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York.
A majority of pledged delegates to the Democratic convention have also endorsed Harris ahead of an early August vote to make her the party’s nominee for president.
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