'A major player': Sanders gets props from the Democratic establishment [View all]

Democratic senators are surprisingly open to the Vermont independent as the nominee if he manages to emerge from the crowded primary.

By BURGESS EVERETT and MARIANNE LEVINE 03/10/2019 06:55 AM EDT

Excerpts:

He’s a major player in the party in a way that he wasn’t. He looked like a quixotic candidate. It’s not like people are sitting around thinking about how to keep the nomination from him” this time.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) experienced the Sanders phenomenon firsthand in the waning days of his deliberations to run for president as he flew with Sanders and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to Selma, Ala., this month.

“There were a lot of people that wanted selfies with Bernie. A lot more than wanted selfies with me,” he quipped. “There’s a lot of affection for him.”

“He’s demonstrated that he is a serious, formidable candidate. And I think that the field will narrow very quickly,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), predicting Sanders will “certainly” survive the first culling of the candidates and that he’d be comfortable with Sanders as the nominee.

“He brings a dimension to our primaries," said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), "that will be helpful for us to win and take back the White House."

“There is respect now within the Democratic caucus for the movement that Bernie has built and sustained over the past four years,” Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “As a result, the ideas Bernie pushed in 2016 have become mainstream in the Democratic caucus and leadership has embraced his message of taking on the wealthy and powerful corporations.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/10/bernie-sanders-2020-senate-1213220


It’s clear there’s been a sea change over the past three years in how Democratic senators view their independent colleague from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images