Bernie Bros are Real… and They are Mostly Women and People of Color!
Over the last 4 years, there has been a pervasive myth, largely meant to be a smear, that Bernie Sanders’ supporters were mostly just white men, many of whom held racist and sexist beliefs. This claim was always rather silly considering that Sanders is the most progressive and most liberal member of the United States Senate, and has a long history of support for Civil Rights and Women’s Rights causes. Wikileaks later revealed that this myth was created by Tom Perez (formerly of Obama’s cabinet and current head of the DNC), as a way to help Hillary Clinton defeat Sanders during the 2016 Democratic primary.
This myth was easy to spread because Bernie Sanders did struggle to win over some women and African American voters (especially those over the age of 30), who clearly leaned towards Hillary Clinton during the 2016 race. Additionally, much of the liberal media establishment was very pro-Clinton and seized on this myth to undermine Sanders’ chances of winning the primary. There is no denying that Hillary did far better among those demographics. However, polling has repeatedly shown that Bernie Sanders does have high approval rating among woman and voters of color, in fact, those ratings are higher than among whites and men.
This myth has continued to be mentioned despite new polling evidence that literally proves it to be completely wrong. A recent poll from last week showed that Sanders had the largest support of Hispanic and African American voters of all candidates the declared candidates. When Joe Biden, who has yet to declare, was added to the poll, Sanders still led among Hispanic voters and dropped to second in African American support in this very crowded field. The poll also showed an almost exactly 50/50 split among men and women that support Sanders.
A new Emerson poll which came out two days ago shows ever more favorable data to smash the myth. In this new poll, Sanders is outpolling all candidates, including Joe Biden. His support among voters of color was the strongest in the field and made up a slight majority of his total support. The poll also revealed a that a slight majority of Sanders’ supporter are women.
Granted, not every poll is 100% accurate and the information from one poll can often differ from the findings of others. That said, there is certainly enough polling data at this point to prove that Bernie Sanders does not have a problem winning over female voters or voters of color. In fact, he is doing better than the vast majority of Democratic candidates among these demographics. It is time to bury the myth of the Bernie Bro once and for all!
