2 — Monday, April 20, 2020
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily
The Bell Tower in Ingalls Mall was lit up red, white and blue to show support the first responders and essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
last Friday evening.
With Sanders out, students
hesitate to support Joe Biden
Progressive organizations on campus uncertain whether to back
moderate candidate after liberal senator suspends his campaign
When
Vermont
Sen.
Bernie
Sanders, I-Vt., ended his presidential
campaign earlier this month, former
Vice President Joe Biden became the
presumptive
Democratic
nominee.
Sanders, a longtime liberal firebrand,
subsequently endorsed Biden, who
had pitched himself as the moderate
and reliable option throughout the
primary. With the field of Democratic
candidates narrowed down to one,
some
progressive
students
aren’t
thrilled with the choice before them.
On college campuses across the
country, student groups formed to
support
Sanders
expressed
their
discontent on social media, refusing to
endorse Biden.
In interviews with The Daily, various
University of Michigan students said
they were disappointed and unsure
whether to back Biden in the general
election come November.
LSA junior Arden Shapiro, campus
corps leader for Students for Bernie,
said Sanders’s decision to exit the
race
was
disheartening
but
said
she understood why he ended the
campaign.
“Honestly, it did come as kind of a
surprise and it was a bit disappointing,”
Shapiro said. “However, I trust that he
made the best decision for himself and
his constituents and his movement,
given the current circumstances we’re
in and his desire to defeat (President)
Donald Trump in the general election.”
The official account for Students
for Bernie at UMich tweeted they are
not endorsing or supporting Biden,
breaking with Sanders himself.
In an April 8 video announcing the
end of his presidential bid, Sanders
emphasized the importance of getting
Biden elected and beating Trump in the
general election.
“Then together, standing united,
we will go forward to defeat Donald
Trump, the most dangerous president
in modern American history,” Sanders
said. “As I hope all of you know, this
race has never been about me.”
Shapiro commented on the tweet,
explaining they do not believe Biden’s
policies are progressive enough to earn
their endorsement.
“Even
though
Senator
Sanders
himself
did
endorse
the
former
vice
president,
speaking
as
kind
of
a
leadership
cohort
together
and reflecting on the values of our
organization and our goals, we decided
that at this time, it would not be possible
for us to endorse Joe Biden,” Shapiro
said. “We do not believe his platform
adequately addresses the issues that
this country is currently facing and will
certainly be facing in the future in light
of the current economic depression. We
don’t believe that his stance on climate
appreciates the dire reality of climate
change that we will be experiencing
within the next decade.”
Not all students were jarred by
Sanders’s decision. Engineering junior
Omar Al-Ejel supported Sanders in the
primary and said he was not surprised
when the campaign ended. Al-Ejel said
Biden benefited institutional support
as he continued winning primary
delegates,
primarily
among
the
Democratic National Committee and
fellow presidential challengers former
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg
and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.,
both of whom endorsed Biden after
suspending their own campaigns.
“I wasn’t surprised at that point
since I knew what was coming after
the whole media and DNC pile-on
against Bernie started to manifest in
Biden shooting up in the polls and him
winning states,” Al-Ejel said.
LSA sophomore Eman Naga was
also a Sanders supporter. She said she
wasn’t surprised either.
“I expected it, but that didn’t
make it hurt any less,” Naga said. “I
think I internally placed too great an
emphasis on electoral politics and
viewed Sanders as a political savior
which wasn’t fair, but his campaign
undoubtedly paved the path forward
and it’s up to his supporters to walk it.”
In an interview with The Daily prior
to a rally on The Diag on March 8,
Sanders emphasized the success of his
campaign in shaping the Democratic
Party’s ideology through grassroots
organizing. He also addressed the
difficulty of getting younger voters to
show up at the polls.
“Younger people are in fact the
most progressive young generation
in the history of this country, that’s
your generation,” Sander said. “The
problem is that it has historically been
very hard to get young people to vote
in large numbers. We’re making some
progress.”
Drumming
up
support
among
young voters was key to Sanders’s
electoral strategy, which ultimately
fell flat when Biden won the Michigan
primary, a state that was integral to
Sanders’s campaign in 2016.
In the March interview, Sanders
emphasized the importance of students
participating in electoral politics.
“That’s why we’re here on the
campus, that’s why we visit many
campuses: to make it clear to young
people that in a democracy they have
an obligation to participate, that it’s
not good enough to moan and groan
about all the concerns you have, you’ve
got to get involved and stand up for
what you believe in, and that means
participating in the political progress,”
Sanders said.
Despite efforts from the Sanders
camp
to
increase
voter
turnout
among students, Biden swept every
county in the state, including left-
leaning Washtenaw, the home of the
University’s flagship campus and the
site of a get-out-the-vote rally with
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
D-N.Y., that drew more than 10,000
attendees.
Shapiro said that, though Students
for Bernie are not endorsing Biden,
they understand many Democrats feel
that Sanders supporters should vote
for Biden in hopes of beating Trump.
EMMA RUBERG
Daily Staff Reporter