Sen. Bernie Sanders has pulled out of several presidential campaign events in South Carolina in order to rest his voice.
After cancelling appearances in the state Monday and Tuesday and heading home to Vermont, the Vermont senator is expected to return to the campaign trail Tuesday night at the AFL-CIO summit in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, a major shakeup in the campaign occurred over the weekend with Sanders replacing his New Hampshire state director. Politico reports the change comes after “growing indignation from his fiercest supporters” that their concerns he could lose the first-in-the-nation primary.
The news site also reported the Sanders campaign has severed ties with Kurt Ehrenberg, a key adviser and New Hampshire activist who was the Granite State political director in the 2016 campaign. Ehrenberg said there were fundamental differences on how to run a successful primary campaign.
Shannon Jackson, who ran Sanders’ Senate campaign in 2018, will replace Joe Caizzo as the head of the New Hampshire campaign. Caizzo will reportedly go to the Massachusetts campaign. Politico reported about 50 members of Sanders’ state steering committee applauded when Jackson announced the change in Manchester, N.H., on Sunday.
Polls in New Hampshire show a tight race, with Sanders at 22%, former Vice President Joe Biden at 21.5% and Warren at 19.3%, according to the Real Clear Politics average of surveys. Sanders easily defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 22 points.
Sanders appeared at one event in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday, but planned to return to Burlington after that event to rest.
Campaign officials called the decision to cancel the events, despite South Carolina’s importance, precautionary. They said Sanders’ most recent voice problems began a week ago.
“While addressing a large rally in Denver on Monday, the senator began to lose his voice. As the country heard during [the debate], his voice became more strained,” said campaign spokesman Mike Casca, referring to events last week. Sanders repeatedly had to reach for water during the debate.
“Other than the hoarseness in his throat, the senator is feeling great, but after making a stop in Charleston on Sunday he will head home to Burlington for a few days as a precaution to rest his vocal cords,” Casca said in a statement.
This is not the first time that Sanders, who turned 78 earlier this month, has had problems with his vocal cords. During his 1996 reelection campaign for Congress, Sanders underwent surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital to remove a benign cyst from his right vocal cord.
In his book, “Outsider in the House,” Sanders wrote the 1996 surgery was “scary business” and an operation he feared could result in him losing his voice completely.
“I assume the doctors know what they’re doing and they seem to think it’s a minor procedure. Still, if they make a mistake, it’s my voice for the rest of my life,” Sanders wrote.
The surgery, the first in his life, was considered a success. Sanders said his voice sounded “so clear and smooth” he had to lower his volume.
Sanders wrote the problems with his voice began in 1994 when he had a cold that wouldn’t go away and he kept on giving campaign speeches. Sanders admitted he handled the medical condition “stupidly.” Before the surgery, Sanders said his voice sounded “gravelly at best and there are times when it rasps so much I have difficulty finishing a sentence.”
According to the Charleston Post and Courier, Sanders has already made 30 appearances in South Carolina during the 2020 cycle. The state was considered a key battleground state for Sanders in 2016, in part because it was the first test of Sander’s appeal in a state with a large African-American population.
Clinton trounced Sanders in 2016 in South Carolina Democratic primary. Polls showed him behind this election cycle as well. According to a poll in mid-August, former vice president Joe Biden leads at 36%, Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 17% and Sanders at 16%.
Sanders’ campaign cancelled a labor forum he had scheduled for Monday and pulled out of a Monday evening event that will still go on. He also cancelled a “College Town Hall with Bernie Sanders” at Coker University.
