With the Chicago skyline around him, Bernie Sanders will on Sunday conclude his two-part presidential campaign launch by emphasizing the role of race and racial discrimination in American society.
His audience is expected to hear about the senator’s civil rights activism at the University of Chicago in the 1960s and his arrest during a South Side protest against public-school segregation. The anecdotes, those advising Sanders hope, will allow him to connect with voters and help distinguish him in a diverse Democratic field.
“This is the origin story of a political revolutionary,” Shaun King, a writer and activist, said as he introduced Sanders at a kick-off event in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Sanders is attempting to build a new kind of campaign, one that seeks to address the weaknesses of his 2016 run by expanding his appeal to nonwhite voters.
In Brooklyn, Sanders said: “One of the proudest days of my life was attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr.”
Last time out, the Vermont independent struggled to win over African Americans and other minority voters. He has worked to build more connections with the black community. He joined a unionization effort led by nonwhite workers in Mississippi and backed activists pushing for criminal justice reform in Los Angeles. On Sunday, before speaking in Chicago, he will join his former opponent Hillary Clinton at the annual Martin and Coretta King unity breakfast in Selma, Alabama.
Yet Sanders has continued to face criticism for the way his speaks about race and racism. On a recent visit to South Carolina, an early voting state where black voters made up about roughly 60% of the Democratic primary vote in 2016, Sanders attempted to reset his message, declaring that “racial equality must be central to combating economic inequality”.
“History defines him,” Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator who is a co-chair of Sanders’ campaign, said in Brooklyn. “But it’s not just about what he did in the 60s and the 80s and the 90s, it is about what he is doing right now.”
Elements that powered Sanders insurgent campaign in 2016 have given the 77-year-old Democratic socialist clear advantages in the crowded 2020 primary: small donors and big rallies. He has raised millions of dollars from a loyal base of supporters contributing as little as $3; his kick-off rally at Brooklyn College drew roughly 13,000 people.
Yet this race will be very different from the anti-establishment, insurgent campaign he ran in 2016. The once-unknown Vermont senator has near-universal name recognition and polling shows him near the front, and in some states leading, the field of declared and potential challengers.
Acknowledging recently that his 2016 campaign was “too white” and “too male”, Sanders has sought to build an operation that reflects the strong desire within the party to elevate women and minorities. His 2020 effort will be led by Faiz Shakir, the first Muslim campaign manager of a major US presidential candidate. Co-chairs include three people of color: Turner, California congressman Ro Khanna and San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz.
He has also sought to address criticism of his campaign’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations in 2016 by instituting mandatory training and strict reporting guidelines.
The race for the party’s nomination has already attracted more than a dozen candidates and several more big names are weighing bids, including former Vice-President Joe Biden, former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg. The field is dominated by women and minorities, such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, who have weaved their biographies into campaign narratives.
In Brooklyn, Sanders injected his now-familiar policy speech with details of his childhood. For a candidate who has resisted speaking about himself, it represented a rhetorical shift.
Citing his “experience as a child, living in a family that struggled economically” as something that “powerfully influenced my life and my values”, he roared: “I know where I came from.”
His strong accent emphasizing the point, he said: “And that is something I will never forget.”
He also sought to draw a sharp contrast between his modest upbringing and the billionaire president from Queens. He told the crowd: “I didn’t have a father who gave me millions of dollars to build luxury skyscrapers, casinos and country clubs.”
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