Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Disappointment, frustration linger for some of Nevada’s Sanders supporters

Sanders

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Delegates cheer as former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Monday, July 25, 2016.

DNC Day 4

A delegate reacts during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Thursday, July 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Launch slideshow »

PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech wasn’t the capstone of a weeklong kumbaya for Democrats here in the City of Brotherly Love.

Outbursts from some Bernie Sanders delegates in the crowd — many of whom were wearing identical neon-yellow, glow-in-the-dark shirts emblazoned with the battle cry "enough is enough" — peppered the night and, specifically, Clinton’s speech. A handful of Sanders delegates from Nevada wearing those same shirts held signs bearing the name of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein during Clinton’s acceptance speech.

As the convention came to a close Thursday night, a handful of Sanders and Clinton delegates from Nevada shared in interviews their thoughts on the event. And the week has taken Sanders delegates vastly different places: one delegate is “all-in” for Clinton while another unregistered as a Democrat.

The varied experiences of the Sanders delegation in Nevada are reflective of what’s happening on a larger scale, said Sanders delegate Sarah Mahler of Spanish Springs.

“I think we do a good job of representing where Nevada is,” Mahler said. “And the people in Bernie Sanders’ delegation do represent what is happening right now."

Mahler, for her part, said she was in tears when she finally made the decision to support Clinton after Sanders and former President Jimmy Carter asked her to in their appearances at the convention. Choking up as she recalled the memory, Mahler said that the Tennessee delegates behind her hugged her through her tears during the moment.

And she said it kept coming: pleas from the first lady, vice president and president. “It doesn’t get any better than that,” she said, adding that there is “so much at stake” in the election.

Alex Goff, an alternate delegate for Sanders from Fernley, said he always knew he would vote for the Democratic nominee. He was attracted to Sanders because he felt like he pushed political thoughts outside of the “small window of acceptability.”

He said he felt like Sanders’ convention speech this week was like a Rorschach inkblot test for Sanders supporters. “For me, it conjured images of understanding,” Goff said. “But it didn’t do that for everyone."

Another Sanders delegate, Angie Morelli, fell into that latter category. Morelli said on Tuesday, after Clinton officially secured the party's nomination, that she would probably vote for Stein or vote Nevada’s “none of these candidates” option, but that she would never vote for Clinton.

By Thursday, Morelli said she had unregistered as a Democrat altogether. She said a Thursday morning appearance by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid at the Nevada delegation’s morning meeting, which she and another Sanders supporter walked out of, was the “last straw” for her.

After another Sanders delegate asked Reid about his stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Reid gave a long-winded answer that essentially said that he has never supported any trade agreements. However, some people wanted a yes or no answer. Reid quipped back that “if you don’t get that answer, you better go back to school."

Morelli said that she lost faith in that moment that she could help fix the Democratic Party and the election process, and that she lost faith in humanity. She and other delegates had been expressing concerns throughout the week about the Democratic Party on both a state and national level, particularly in the light of the WikiLeaks release and also after the turmoil of the Nevada Democratic convention a couple of months ago.

Adam Stuart Littman, another Sanders delegate, didn’t go quite as far. He’s still open to the possibility of voting for Clinton, saying that she has between now and November to earn his vote.

“Truthfully, I don’t know if it's possible,” Littman added. (He also said that he would only vote for Trump when “hell freezes over and they hand out ice skates.”)

He said there is no one thing she can say that will bring him over to the Clinton camp, believing that whatever she says is only for the sake of expediency. He said he needs to feel that what she’s saying is genuine.

“I think a lot of us are wanting to do it, but she hasn’t extended the olive branch,” Littman said. In the meantime, he said he’ll be focusing on the progressive movement more generally.

Clinton delegates, for their part, continue to hold out hope that the wounds of the campaign cycle will mend before November.

State Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford emphasized that the Clinton and Sanders delegates at the convention are the “most ardent supporters of both campaigns” and therefore not necessarily reflective of the average voters. Ford said he thought that Democrats would find a way to come together over the next hundred or so days before the election.

“Unity — we’re going to make that happen and ensure that these conversations keep taking place,” Ford said.

Donna West, a Clinton delegate and campaign volunteer, said she understands some of what Sanders delegates are going through, having backed Clinton in 2008 when she lost. Still, she said the turning point for her was when then-Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign reached out to her and invited her to a campaign event to see what he was offering for her.

“They said, ‘We think you’re going to see we have a lot more in common than we do apart,’” West said. “They were right."

West said she is interested to see how Clinton shifts her stump speech to a general election message, both to persuade progressives as well as moderates.

“I want to hear her message so when I go back and knock on the door and they say ‘I’m undecided’ I know what to say,” West said. “I want to know how to reach undecided voters."

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