Writing in a New York Times piece called “Why I’m Supporting Bernie Sanders”, Merkley said Sanders “is boldly and fiercely addressing the biggest challenges facing our country”.
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While lauding Sanders’ progressive bona fides, Merkley steered clear of criticizing Clinton, who hopes to effectively dispatch Sanders with a strong victory in the April 19 Democratic primary in NY. While Merkley wrote that Hillary Clinton would make a “strong and capable” president, it is Bernie Sanders who would take on the challenges facing the economy in a more direct and fearless way.
Following his endorsement announcement, Sanders joined a picket line of Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) workers, who went on strike on Wednesday after contract talks hit an impasse. “It is essential to our economy”, Sanders said, noting that “millions of people in this city depend” on such a system.
“Obviously the math is an uphill climb, but we’ve been surprised by what happens in campaigns time and again”, Merkley admitted when pressed on Sanders’ path to the nomination, adding, “anything’s possible”. Clinton also leads in endorsements from the House, 160, compared to Sanders’ eight. TWU joins the Communication Workers of America and the New York States Nurses Association in backing Mr. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist and fierce defender of organized labor.
Merkley, elected to the Senate in a close 2008 race and easily re-elected after a brief 2014 scare, once faced the sort of insurgency that Sanders now represents to Clinton.
It is time to recommit ourselves to that vision of a country that measures our nation’s success not at the boardroom table, but at kitchen tables across America.
Comparing opportunities for today’s children to when he was growing up, Merkley felt “America has gone off track, and the outlook for the kids growing up there (Oregon) is a lot gloomier today than 40 years ago”.
He then lists off several major areas in which Sanders has demonstrated said boldness and and fierceness: Trade deals that ship American jobs overseas, fossil fuels and renewable energy, campaign finance reform, and the abuses of big banks.
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Clinton won the endorsement of the New York Daily News on Wednesday.
