Sanders wins Nevada Democratic presidential nomination election
NEW YORK: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has beat back a last-minute attack attempting to link him to Russia and won the Democratic Party’s internal election in Nevada for the party’s nomination in November’s presidential election by a large margin. Early results showed Sanders leading in the Saturday poll with about 40 percent of the votes, far ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden trailing with about 22 percent, and media tracking the polls declared him the winner. The vote margin of victory now clearly marks him for now as the front-runner to challenge President Donald Trump, although 47 more states have yet to hold the intra-party elections his status could change.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that according to US intelligence officials Russia was trying to help the Sanders presidential campaign and that the officials had briefed him about it a month ago. The leak on the eve of the Nevada poll about a briefing from a month ago did not appear to impact the self-described democratic socialist Sanders, who had the support of a large number of minorities forming the party’s steadfast base.
The Democratic Party establishment is obsessed with the Russian factor has blamed Moscow for the 2016 victory of Trump over Hillary Clinton and any mention of Moscow could turn off some voters. Sanders disavowed Russian aid and said: “My message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president, I will make sure that you do”. Clinton had smeared Tulsi Gabbard, a Hindu-American seeking the party’s presidential nomination, by calling her a Russian asset, and the latter has filed a $50 million defamation case against her.
The rise of Sanders has made the Democratic Party’s establishment uneasy because they fear that his identification as a socialist will turn off moderate voters and lead to his defeat by Trump in a general election while dragging down party members of Congress. Sanders, who is 78, has great appeal for younger voters because of his radical policies that include raising taxes on the rich and the minimum wage and providing medical insurance, free college and free school meals for all. Meanwhile, billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has shot up in the national opinion polls, although as a late entrant he hasn’t run in the three-party elections so far. (IANS)