Resistance Radio: Draft Bernie

In February 2017, a new movement was launched: Draft Bernie for a People’s Party. The goal is to gather enough signatures to present to Bernie Sanders and convince him to lead a new People’s Party.

Marie Adams, based in Boulder, is part of the National Organization Team of the Draft Bernie Campaign, says the Draft Bernie movement is about forming an independent party that doesn’t take corporate donations and supports a progressive agenda.  “We would like to draft Bernie, who is the most popular politician in the country right now, and the only one actually fighting and introducing legislation for the issues that he’s been fighting for for 32 years while he’s been Congress, to be at the helm of this party.”

The organization has volunteers in all 50 states and Adams says their presence at the Left Forum and Peoples’ Summit that happened in June has increased interest in the movement. “For the first time at those two summits, we actually got some mainstream media coverage, instead of depending on social media as the way that people found out about us. ”

The goal is to present Sanders with enough signatures to convince him to lead a new people’s party, but Adams says that the movement will carry on even if Sanders does not agree to front the campaign. “The party will be formed with our without Bernie. We of course would like Bernie to be there and rebuild the coalition that he established in the ’16 campaign.”