Bernie Sanders received MoveOn.org’s endorsement.
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The liberal activist movement MoveOn.org endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, handing the Vermont senator important grassroots support in the early primary states.
The group said it is aiming to turn out 43,000 MoveOn members in Iowa and 30,000 in New Hampshire to vote, volunteer, organize and fundraise.
The endorsement was widely expected.
MoveOn.org was founded in 1998 during the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton. Elizabeth Warren to run for president but when she declined previous year many of its supporters got behind Sanders’ campaign.
Almost 79 percent of 340,665 members casting votes selected Sanders, an Independent, over the other candidates for the Democratic nod, Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former secretary of state who is the front-runner in national polls, and Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor. To earn the endorsement, a candidate had to receive ⅔ of the votes of their members.
“MoveOn has spent more than 17 years bringing people together to fight for progressive change and stand up against big money interests”, he said in a statement.
Last month, Sanders also won the endorsement of Democracy For America, another nationwide progressive group, following a similarly lopsided vote of its membership. They include: His commitment to combat corporate interests, standing up for oppressed communities, his anti-war agenda, his electability and, finally, his ability to generate such a convincing amount of support from MoveOn members. “MoveOn members are feeling the Bern”.
Sanders’ plan to address climate change involves banning offshore drilling and fossil fuel extraction on public lands, increasing fuel economy standards, building more mass transit and a high-speed rail system, investing in renewables and clean energy technology, and eliminating fossil fuel subsidies.
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In a statement Tuesday, DFA executive director Charles Chamberlain said the pair of endorsements make clear that the “Warren wing” of the Democratic party is uniting behind Sanders, a reference to Sen. It added that the organization will support whomever wins the Democratic nomination in the general election cycle to “keep a Republican out of the White House”.
