A prominent progressive activist group has voted overwhelmingly to endorse Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, despite Clinton’s efforts to court the organization.
Democracy For America, a group that was formed out of the 2004 Howard Dean campaign, announced its official support for Bernie Sanders on Thursday.
Although Clinton made a personal bid for the DFA’s endorsement—and Dean appealed to the group on Clinton’s behalf—Sanders crushed her in a poll of DFA members, Buzzfeed reported.
Over 270,000 DFA members reportedly voted, with Sanders receiving 87 percent of the vote compared to 10 percent for Clinton. Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley received just one percent of the vote.
The endorsement tops off a good week for Sanders, as Buzzfeed reports:
It’s an especially sweet addition to Sanders’s lengthy list of lefty boosters thanks to the way he endorsement came about. DFA asked its members to vote for who the group should endorse, as it does for most of its political endorsements. Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley each made direct appeals to DFA members. Dean, who founded the group and backs Clinton, wrote an email to DFA voters on her behalf: "I hope that Hillary will be your choice," Dean wrote. […]
The DFA endorsement was the second big pickup of the day for Sanders. He began Thursday celebrating the endorsement of the Communications Workers of America union, which represents around 700,000 workers across the country. The endorsement wasn’t a total surprise, given that one of Sanders’ top labor advisers is former CWA president Larry Cohen, but it gave Sanders another opportunity to claim he carries the banner of the working-class left.
The DFA endorsement also helps bolster the Sanders campaign’s effort to tap into the power of the progressive grassroots. Sanders hopes to rely on grassroots organizing come caucus time in Iowa, where polls have shown he’ll have to turn out large numbers of younger voters and first-time caucus goers to make a strong showing. This week, Sanders campaign sources announced they were nearing 2 million contributions, a big number that helps make Sanders’ case that his voters are plentiful and extra-motivated to help Sanders surprise Clinton in Iowa.