Former Chicago Mayor and former President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that the voter turnout in the first three Democratic Party presidential nominee primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada was down from 2018 and 2019.
He characterized that as a “flashing yellow light.”
While discussing 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) ability to turn out voters with his socialist message, Emanuel said, “2018. Major election for the Democrats, one of the biggest since Watergate, Bernie’s PAC endorsed 22 candidates. [It] went 0 for 22. Not even by a fluke did one happen. A couple of elections you won, they had nowhere on the radar. His pack was 0 for 22. That tells you, in 2018, when Democrats are having this massive national win, gubernatorial races, congressional races, statehouses, that didn’t work.”
He continued, “Number three, the turnout model that he’s looking at has not materialized. One of the things I’m concerned about right now is that while viewership in the debates are up—2018, big turnout, 2019, big turnout for Democrats,—participation in our primaries is barely surpassing 2016. That’s a flashing yellow light. I am concerned. Now it’s only three. We’ll see what Super Tuesday produces, but that’s a concern.”
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