Bernie Sanders and His Supporters Should Do What the Democratic Party Won’t: Advocate for Candidates
I've donated to Lucy Flores and Pramila Jayapal.
http://www.thenation.com/article/heres-why-bernie-sanders-and-his-supporters-should-stay-mobilized-after-the-election/
Sanders has already started to show what’s possible by marrying his movement with the moment of the browning of America. In Las Vegas, progressive Latina Lucy Flores grew up poor, ran with gangs in her teenage years, and was incarcerated at a young age before going on to become a lawyer and state legislator. Flores is running against a wealthy white woman who, up until April, had managed to significantly out-fundraise her. But then along came Bernie. Sanders’s campaign sent out a fundraising appeal on Flores’s behalf, and more than 32,000 donors responded, filling her coffers with more than $428,000 and instantly transforming the race. If she wins, which is now eminently possible, Flores will be one of the most progressive national Latina elected officials in the country.
Backing individual candidates of color like Flores could just be the beginning. One of the most significant legacies of Jesse Jackson’s 1980s presidential campaigns is that they catalyzed the careers of warriors for justice such as Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters who have championed justice and equality for the past quarter century. Sanders’s support of Flores; Washington State Senator Pramila Jayapal, an Indian-American activist; and progressive New York activist Zephyr Teachout may also yield similarly promising results. And, looking ahead, his national surrogate Nina Turner, an African-American former state senator in Ohio, is poised to become the next mayor of Cleveland in 2017.