In the 2016 election, a significant number of Bernie Sanders supporters either stayed home, voted for Jill Stein, or even voted for Trump. They didn’t like Hillary Clinton, and they felt betrayed by the Democratic party.
Something similar is already taking shape in the 2020 election.
Bernie supporters see the establishment going to bat for Biden, after weeks of hearing liberal pundits ask how Bernie could be stopped. And just like they did with Hillary in 2016, many of them are vowing not to support Biden in 2020.
David Siders and Holly Otterbein write at Politico:
A ‘Never Biden’ movement vows not to vote for JoeOn Tuesday night, Joe Biden’s campaign was celebrating his latest primary night triumph.By Wednesday morning, #NeverBiden, #WriteinBernie and #DemExit2020 hashtags began trending on Twitter.There’s no question it’s been a banner two weeks for Biden. But lurking in the background of his sudden ascension to all-but-presumptive nominee is evidence that at least some Bernie Sanders supporters might not migrate to him in November, weakening him in the general election.The significance of the problem became apparent in the same string of primaries that put Biden on the cusp of the nomination.In Michigan — a state critical to Democrats’ efforts to reclaim their general election footing in the Rust Belt — just 2 of 5 Sanders backers said they would vote Democratic in November, regardless of who became the nominee, according to exit polls. Four in five said they’d be dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic standard-bearer…“The rationale for us is that our votes need to be earned and that we’ve been taken for granted, and the party never moves to us,” said Alyson Metzger, a 54-year-old writer and progressive activist in New York City who supports Sanders. “If they install Joe Biden, I will not vote for Biden. … This is not democratic what’s happening in the Democratic primary.”
Democrats are undoubtedly hoping these folks will eventually come around, and some of them might. But many of them won’t.
Joe Levine writes at the New York Post:
Bernie Bros warn of ‘massive exodus’ if Democrats nominate Joe BidenThe Bernie Bros are vowing revenge.As the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to crash and burn, the socialist’s most hard-core supporters are vowing they will never vote for Joe Biden at the ballot box — even if that means handing Trump a second term.“We will never – NEVER boost or support Joe Biden or defend his abysmal record and terrible policy positions,” Henry Williams, executive director of The Gravel Institute, told The Post. “We will tell people, as we always have, to vote their conscience and to make decisions based on the interests of all the world’s oppressed people … I do expect a massive exodus from the Democratic Party.”…The grumbling from Sanders die-hards is no idle threat. A whopping 12% of them voted for Trump in 2016, according to an analysis by Cooperative Congressional Election Study. That added up to roughly 216,000 voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, exit polls showed. Trump’s combined margin of victory in those states was 77,744.
Bernie has already said that he will support Joe Biden if he becomes the nominee, just as he did for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But like 2016, it won’t matter to many of his supporters.
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