Supporters of Bernie Sanders are some of the most devoted supporters in the political world. The people who have fallen in love with his ideology and believe in his promises of revolution would follow him to the ends of the Earth if he asked.
Unfortunately for them, it’s looking like they won’t see him clinch the Democratic nomination for a second time. So, they’ll need to decide who to vote for in the general election.
The results of a new poll show that while the majority would choose Biden, not all Sanders supporters will vote “blue no matter who.”
In 2016, when Sanders lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, many voters who supported Sanders felt disillusioned with the Party and the election process. They felt that Sanders had been cheated out of the nomination.
When the general election rolled around in November, many Sanders supporters chose not to vote for Clinton. Some stayed home and didn’t vote at all. Some wrote in Sanders. And some voted for Donald Trump. Some posit that Sanders supporters are the reason Clinton lost the election.
The Sanders supporters who voted for Trump in 2016 did so because they were tired of the status quo in politics. They wanted something completely different and Clinton represented the same while Trump represented something different.
The 2020 election may be headed for a very similar scenario. Sanders will likely lose the Democratic nomination, again, to a candidate that champions the status quo, again. Sanders supporters have been vocal about not wanting to support Biden.
So, the fear is that Sanders supporters will again stay home – or worse, vote for Trump – costing Biden the election.
According to a new poll done by ABC News, 80% of Sanders supporters plan to cast their vote for Biden. However, the poll also found that 15% of Sanders voters would vote for Trump.
How does this compare to 2016? An ABC News poll done in 2016 found that only 20% of Sanders `voters were willing to vote for Clinton. And in the 2016 election, 12% of Sanders supporters ended up voting for Trump.
So, more of Sanders voters are willing to vote for Trump in 2020 than they were in 2016, but far more of them are willing to vote for Biden than they were to vote for Clinton in 2016.
15% of Sanders supporters are also Trump supporters.
I'm shocked. Shocked.https://t.co/HdLLGmOGQL
— Jacopo della Quercia (@Jacopo_della_Q) March 29, 2020
The results of this poll seem to indicate that Democrats are committed to the idea of “vote blue no matter who” for the 2020 election. Democrats are so opposed to Trump’s presidency and everything it stands for that they’re willing to put their principles aside and vote for whoever is opposing Trump in the general election.
In 2016, many voters didn’t feel they could support Clinton in good conscience and many believed that Clinton would win even without their vote. So, they stayed home or wrote in Sanders as a form of protest.
In 2020 the stakes are so much higher that there’s no room for Sanders supporters to stay home or cast a protest vote by writing in Sanders. National polls show Biden with a very narrow lead over Trump, which means that a Biden victory could come down to what Sanders voters decide to do.
When you scroll down further and read the rest of the article a whopping 80% of Sanders supporters said they will vote for Biden.
So, why are Sanders supporters still be accused of not being team players? pic.twitter.com/XosKqUsyZx
— $AMC To the Moon 🚀 (@MediaWatch_2020) March 30, 2020