The Bern Report: March 2019
Not a single Democratic candidate can match Bernie’s crowd sizes night after night. In March 2019, Bernie held the largest rally in every state he traveled to, which included New York, Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and California. His smallest rally had about 1,000 people, which crushed every other rally by the other candidates, excluding kick-off rallies. The grassroots enthusiasm that forms these crowds is best summed up by Meagan Day in Jacobin: “No viable presidential campaign has ever been so encouraging of agitation from below.”
Bernie’s first campaign rally was a homecoming rally on March 2 at Brooklyn College, where he attended his first year of college. A diverse crowd of about 13,000 people came out, despite the five inches of snow that fell on the ground overnight before the rally. As I stood there in the snow it was obvious that Bernie was changing his narrative from last time. In 2016, Bernie refused to talk about himself and he downplayed his work in the civil rights movement in order to make it not seem like he was begging for political points. But at his kick-off in Brooklyn, Bernie shifted gears and spoke about his immigrant father escaping Nazism, after several speakers introduced him and also discussed his personal history, including Shaun King detailing Bernie’s 1963 arrest in Chicago.
Bernie rallied on March 3 in Chicago, where he attended college after Brooklyn. Just like in Brooklyn, Bernie told his personal story about working with CORE at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s. The crowd size was nearly the same as in Brooklyn. The Chicago Tribune estimated 12,000 people attended the Navy Pier rally.
Bernie went on a three-day tour in Iowa, speaking at a rally each night in Iowa from Thursday, March 7 to Saturday, March 9. Over this three-night period more than 5,000 people listened to Bernie speak. Each night Bernie broke over a thousand people in the crowd, whereas every other candidate in that state has failed to reach half of that. The headline for TruthOut following the Iowa tour read: “Sanders Connects Farmers’ Struggles to Labor Movement in Iowa Rallies.” Eugene Debs strongly believed in the early 20th century that the Socialist Party must connect the farmers struggle with the labor struggle, even though conservative members on the national committee of the Socialist Party looked down on the farmers struggle at the time.
His first Iowa rally on March 7 took place at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. The maximum capacity for the Exhibition Hall is 2,666, but it seems like it wasn’t overfilled. The Guardian reported about the rally: “The energy at the Mid-America Center Thursday recalled the movement that surrounded Sanders’ campaign in 2016 — and suggested that the momentum he built could carry over into the current cycle.”
On March 8, Bernie spoke in Iowa City to more than a thousand people in the main ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union. The official count size was 1,804. For the first time in the 2020 campaign, the rally room was filled to capacity and about 500 people gathered in an overfilled room to hear Bernie speak before the main rally. Very few candidates have this type of problem at their rallies.
Bernie’s third Iowa rally took place on March 9 in Des Moines. This turned out to be his smallest rally in the state, but still brought out a whopping 1,356 people. Nevertheless, all three of his rallies were the largest for any candidate in the state up to that time. As the Des Moines Register wrote: “He’s so far earned the largest crowd counts among visiting caucus candidates in Iowa — his smallest event drew 1,356 people in Des Moines — and they’ve been filled with people sporting Bernie-branded hats, shirts and scarves.”
On March 10, Bernie held two rallies in New Hampshire. The first rally at noon was held at the Courtyard Marriott Grappone Conference Center in Concord. Heavy reported people were “lining up hours before with frigid temperatures and snow falling. The venue has several rooms with each a 500-person capacity.” I drove through roads covered in snow that day to both rallies. I was shocked to see the main conference room Bernie spoke in to be full, with overfilled people standing in the hallway. About a thousand came out.
Bernie’s second rally that day was in Keene. It was held at the Colonial Theatre, typically for music events, but the 930 seats were quickly filled to capacity. I stood in the back of the Theatre along with dozens of others without seats. This meant both New Hampshire rallies had around 1,000 people turn out.
The Post&Courier reported that over 1,600 people came out to see Bernie speak at the Royal Family Life Center in North Charleston, South Carolina, on March 14, 2019. This marked his first campaign in the early primary state for 2020.
Bernie continued his tour to early primary states on March 16, when 2,200 listened to him in Henderson, Nevada. This marked the largest rally in the state by any 2020 Democratic candidate.
On March 20, Bernie spoke in front of 400 striking UCLA workers and sympathizers, after 40,000 workers across the state called a one-day strike for better pay and benefits.
Bernie kicked off the weekend on March 22 with a filled-up rally at the Waterfront Park in San Diego. The Waterfront Park’s biggest area for reserve held 3,825, so about that many people came out. Bernie called for the Mueller Report to be fully released. Bernie also noted that FDR spoke at the exact same spot back in 1938.
An estimated 15,000 people came to hear Bernie speak at Grand Park in Los Angeles on March 23. This made it his largest rally yet in the 2020 cycle. The exact number is hard to pinpoint. About 22,000 people RSVP’d to the Facebook page. Grand Park holds between 25,000 and 50,000 people. What we do know for sure is that an overflow crowd was forced to stand across the street at City Hall in order to hear Bernie. The line to see him speak stretched for six blocks.
Earlier in the day Bernie attended the Islamic Center for Southern California, where he spoke with others about the rise of white nationalism and the massacre in New Zealand. This came after his announcement on March 20 to ban military weapons, after he praised New Zealand for swift laws banning military-style semi-automatic and assault rifles.
Bernie broke his crowd size record the very next day in San Francisco. About 16,000 people came to listen to Bernie only a few miles away from the Golden Gate Bridge on March 24. Common Dreams released an article the following day titled, “Bernie Is Not a Wind Sock.” This meant Bernie Sanders doesn’t blow with the wind — he instead has been part of and is now leading a grassroots army to create change from the bottom on up. Unlike every other candidate, Bernie has been part of the progressive movement his entire life, and we are now at a point where Bernie’s leading progressive issues are supported by the majority of Americans. As Common Dreams wrote: “The Sanders campaign is a political opportunity unlike any we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”
Bernie has won nearly every Daily Kos online poll taken this year. On March 4, the Daily Kos set up another straw poll. Bernie was in a clear lead at 55%, with 49,514 votes for Bernie out of the total 89,659 votes. Harris was in second with only 11% (9,565 votes), followed by Biden at 8% (6,918 votes). But it seems by early March 5 that the poll was removed due to “user error” on the part of the person who made the poll. However, the explanation for the poll error tended to place blame on Bernie supporters. The person who made the poll made a gaping error, but directly attacked all the Bernie supporters. Here is the Daily Kos explanation:
Due to user error — mine — I failed to turn on a function that makes it harder to cheat when voting. As a result, people were able to turn their browsers to incognito mode and repeatedly rapid-fire vote — something done extensively by Bernie Sanders supporters. As a result, these results are not an accurate reflection of candidate online support, and will be discarded.
It’s too bad, really, since Sanders would’ve won anyway. There was no need to cheat. We’ll be back in two weeks, when I will presumably avoid this mistake, and we’ll have a more representative vote as a result.
No one gets relegated, and I’ll add Jay Inslee back in to see if his launch weeks gave him any traction. My apologies for my error.
“There was no need” to incorrectly make a straw poll and then place all the blame on voters for exposing your flaw — but that is what happened.
After Beto announced his candidacy on March 13, Daily Kos did another online straw poll on March 14. Despite having to read a long summary about Beto before taking the poll, the results had Bernie on top with 78 percent, followed by Yang at 10 percent, and Beto finishing in third with 4 percent.
Daily Kos did another straw poll online on March 18, with 52,000 people taking the poll. The online poll changed its voting methods again by putting it up for just six hours, and the poll creators expect to keep changing it. Bernie placed first with 38 percent, followed by Warren at 12 percent, Harris at 11 percent, Beto at 10 percent, and everyone else remained in single digits.
The Morning Consult released a poll on March 5 that put Biden and Bernie ahead of the rest of the crowd. Despite Biden leading Bernie in the poll among all Democrats 31 to 27 percent (Harris came in third all the way at 11 percent), Bernie came away strong with certain sections of the Democrats base. The poll showed Bernie fared better with Democrats making under $50,000 a year, where he received 30 percent of the vote. Conversely, Bernie fared worse with Democrats making more than $100,000 a year, where he received 19 percent of the vote. Moreover, Bernie fared worse with Democrats holding post-graduate degrees, which usually overlaps with more wealth, receiving only 17 percent of support.
The Morning Consult also dealt directly with black voters. As the Intercept headline read the next day: “Bernie Sanders Is Beating Kamala Harris 2–1 Among Black Democratic Primary Voters, New Poll Finds.” Among black voters, Bernie was supported by 28 percent, while Harris only had 14 percent. Only Biden led Bernie on the black vote with 32 percent (Bernie trailed Biden for the white vote, 31–25). Booker came in fourth at 6 percent among black voters, while Warren and Beto both registered 4 percent. The Intercept pointed out that Bernie’s support among black voters may be ideological: A February Harvard-Harris Poll showed black voters preferred a “mostly socialist” economic system (56 percent), against black voters who preferred a “mostly capitalist” one (44 percent). This was supported by the title of Business Insider on March 22: “The Myth of the Bernie Bro: Bernie Sanders’ Supporters Are More Diverse than the Prevailing Narrative Suggests.”
Another type of poll taken on March 5 did not end well for Biden. Six individuals were placed in a CNN focus group that was moderated by New Day co-anchor Alisyn Camerota. When Camerota asked the focus group who would vote for Biden in the election, not a single person raised their hand. The CNN focus group were united in their lack of support for Biden. One person said Biden lacked the bold leadership needed for Democrats. Another said he was a pragmatic centrist just like Hillary Clinton, but that would lead to another Trump victory.
The first Emerson College Wisconsin poll was taken from March 15–17. The results: Bernie is leading Wisconsin at a higher rate than any other state. The Wisconsin poll had Bernie leading at 39 percent, with Biden in a far-away second at 24 percent. Bernie carried voters aged 18–29 with 61 percent, with Warren trailing behind at 15 percent. Biden did better with those over the age of 65, where he leads Bernie 38 to 21 percent. Since Bernie won Wisconsin in 2016, it seems he has a good chance of winning the state again based off this poll.
Activist and academic Cornel West, a strong supporter for Bernie in 2016, once again endorsed Bernie for the 2020 campaign. West is one of the most prominent and radical voices on the left today, and he played a part in reforming the super-delegate system for the DNC. West’s endorsement came during the “Deconstructed Podcast,” which was later published by the Intercept on March 7. West gave the best analogy of why Bernie is the only candidate to get the job done:
“But they’re newcomers, you know, and they’re latecomers. Bernie is the real thing. Bernie has been a thermostat. He has shaped the climate of opinion. Too many of them are thermometers. They reflect the climate of opinion. When you’re a thermostat, you are consistent.”
Bernie also received the endorsement of the organization Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). PDA members were polled via email from March 3–10 to determine who they would endorse for president. In order for a candidate to win they must break 60 percent of support. Well, only one poll was needed, because Bernie received 66 percent support on the first try. Second place went to “Undecided/Other” at 10 percent. Every other candidate fell into single digits.
On March 5, CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski tweeted out a February 1989 C-SPAN clip of Bernie Sanders denouncing mainstream media’s lack of attention on climate change and the greenhouse effect. Not only did Bernie prove that he has been unwavering on the issue of climate change for the last 30 years, but the interview also showed him placing blame on mainstream media. Bernie said back in 1989: “I would say that we’re not going to bring about serious political change in this country until we deal with the media, which more and more is being swallowed up by large conglomerates.”
Medicare for All is now a leading cause for the Democrats in 2020 because of Bernie Sanders. The second week into March, Bernie expanded his proposal for Medicare for All to include “long-term care.” Medicare currently does not cover long-term care. As Associated Press wrote: “About two-thirds of U.S. adults favor a long-term care program similar to Medicare, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last year. That includes 76 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans.”
Around the same time Bernie also took on Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Daniel Loepp, after it was revealed that the head of Michigan’s largest health insurance company earned $19.2 million in 2018. Bernie blasted Loepp on social media for his 43 percent increase in pay from 2017, when he made $13 million, while 790,000 Michigan residents went without healthcare. When Bernie was on “Face the Nation” on March 31, he promised to “cut prescription drug prices by half” if elected president.
One week after announcing his candidacy, Bernie built up a volunteer-army of 1 million people. Since then he has been building his core team as well as his field organizers to lead this army. In mid-March Bernie hired “four key Iowa staffers” and “three 2016 veterans in New Hampshire.” On March 19, Bernie announced the hiring of 15 individuals, 10 of whom were women. Bernie is clearly diversifying his team in 2020. As Refinery29 wrote:
The campaign says that now, every single one of its teams — management, political, policy, organizing, communications, advance, digital, and fundraising — has women, and predominantly women of color, in leadership positions. Overall, the national leadership team is around 70% women.
On March 15, staffers for Bernie Sanders presidential campaign became “the first-ever major party presidential campaign to unionize,” CBS wrote. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 was chosen by the majority of the bargaining employees to serve as their exclusive representative. This no doubt bolstered Bernie’s image as the pro-union candidate.
On March 21, Bernie Sanders presidential campaign became the first in 2020 to offset carbon emissions while traveling. Just like the week before with his campaign unionizing, this put Bernie ahead as the best candidate to take on climate change.
Since December 2018, Bernie’s foreign policy credits have grown exponentially in the eyes of the media and public surrounding his Yemen resolution. On March 14, Sanders “scored a major victory,” wrote TalkingPointsMemo, “when the Senate passed his resolution to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen civil war — one that could help his 2020 prospects.” His bi-partisan resolution passed a hyper-partisan U.S. Senate. And this is a score across multiple fronts: “The result strengthens his foreign policy credentials, puts down a marker for anti-war activists in the primary and undercuts his opponents’ argument that he can’t play nice with others.”
March 31 served as the last day to donate before the first FEC report. Even though the findings weren’t released until the next day, Bernie crushed the competition for small donations. On April 1 it was discovered that Bernie raised the most money of any candidate — $18.2 million in just 41 days with an average donation of just $20. No other Democratic candidate raised that much money, and no other candidate had 525,000 individuals donate to the campaign. By the first week of April the press finally began to recognize Bernie as the potential front-runner of the Democratic Party.
