Progressive disciples of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in California, many of whom backed the Vermont senator when he ran for president last year, are seeking to take over the Democratic institutions they once railed against in last year’s elections.
The Daily News reports that at last weekend’s California Democratic Party delegate elections — where 1,100 state delegate seats from 80 Assembly districts were up for grabs — Bernie supporters claimed sweeping victories and signaled their intention and hope to influence the state’s dominant political party’s leadership, policies and direction.
“This is a ringing endorsement of the new direction the Democratic Party needs, not just in California, but nationally,” RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, told the Daily News. The California Nurses Association, known as the Golden State’s political “mischief makers”, heavily endorsed Sanders during the primaries.
However, most of California’s Democratic Party is already left-of-center — compared to the rest of America and it is likely their views are not too far off from the Democrats they are seeking to replace. “They’re probably replacing like-minded people,” Renee Van Vechten, a political science professor at the University of Redlands, told the Daily News.
Others argue the progressive movement could be more symbolic than anything else.
The state’s leading Democrats are already gearing up to lead the “progressive” movement’s national resistance against President-elect Donald Trump.
They include Gov. Jerry Brown, Rep. Xavier Becerra, House Minority Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla, and Kamala Harris.
Some of Silicon Valley’s tech elite have also pushed for a referendum that would see California secede from the United States and become a sovereign nation.
The “CalExit” secession referendum may very well appear on the 2018 ballot.
Meanwhile, all of California’s delegates will reportedly gather at the state party convention in Sacramento this May to choose their party officers.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz
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