(Editor’s note: “Bernie Briefing” is a periodic campaign-season look at how Vermont U.S. senator and onetime Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is playing in the national media.)
[T]elevision host Jeff Probst cites a unique inspiration for this fall’s “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X” challenge.
“The initial spark, for me, came from Bernie Sanders and watching the passion that the Millennials had to get involved in the political system,” the reality-show star says in a Mashable.com story aptly titled “Bernie Sanders Sparked the Idea for ‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen-X.’”
Sanders is returning to the Sunday news show circuit (appearing on ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State of the Union”) and several battleground states to help Clinton attract more young voters.
Clinton once pigeonholed the Vermonter’s supporters as “children of the Great Recession … living in their parents’ basement,” according to just-released audio of a February fundraiser. But Sanders nonetheless is set to campaign for her in Iowa and Minnesota on Monday and Tuesday, with more appearances in the works.
“He’s talking about traveling all over the country to help Secretary Clinton,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told USA Today.
As The New York Times reports in a story titled “Old Foes Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Team Up to Woo the Kids”: “They may not love each other. They may not always demonstrate much chemistry. But they are determined to present a united front for the sake of the kids. Or, at least, prospective voters ages 18 to 29.”
Adds the Wall Street Journal under the headline “Hillary Clinton Leans on Bernie Sanders to Gain Support Among Young Voters”: “Mr. Sanders has emerged as a critical part of the Clinton campaign’s strategy to shore up her flagging support among younger voters in the race against Republican nominee Donald Trump.”
Clinton is winning younger voters in most polls, but not by the numbers recorded by President Barack Obama in 2012. More problematically, her lead among those under age 35 shrank from 24 points in August to 5 points in September, recent Quinnipiac surveys report, as support for third-party candidates has increased.
Enter Sanders, who joined his former opponent in New Hampshire last week as part of a fall series of campaign appearances.
“We’re working on a schedule right now, which is going to be a very, very vigorous schedule,” the Vermonter told MSNBC. “We’re going to go all over this country. We’re going to go wherever Secretary Clinton’s people think that I am needed, and I am going to work as hard as I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become the next president.”
Sanders used a recent New York rally for former Vermonter and current Democratic congressional candidate Zephyr Teachout to push his larger message.
“This is not the time for a protest vote, in terms of a presidential campaign,” The Washington Post quoted him. “I ran as a third-party candidate. I’m the longest-serving independent in the history of the United States Congress. I know more about third-party politics than anyone else in the Congress, okay? And if people want to run as third-party candidates, God bless them! Run for Congress. Run for governor. Run for state legislature. When we’re talking about president of the United States, in my own personal view, this is not time for a protest vote.”
Part of his challenge — summarized by the New York magazine story “Can Bernie Undo the Damage He’s Done to Clinton?” — is reframing the attacks he voiced during the party nomination process.
“What I would ask those people who voted for me, even if you have concerns with Clinton,” Sanders told Seth Meyers on NBC’s “Late Night” show, “look at the hard issues that impact your lives and your neighbor’s lives, and then think whether or not you want Donald Trump to become president. I think if you frame it in that way, our people will end up voting for Clinton.”
In addition to television and traveling, Sanders will attempt to convey his message by adapting his coming book — “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe,” set to arrive Nov. 15 — for students in a youth edition being promoted as “an inspiring teen guide to engaging with and shaping the world.”
“Sanders is doing something unusual by targeting the teenage market,” CNN reports. “He has spoken at length about the importance of motivating young people to care about the electoral process.”
The youth edition will cost $17 — $10 less than the adult version, which bears the same price as Sanders’ oft-noted average supporter donation of $27.
