10 | POLITICO | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019
Bernie Sanders found out he won
one of the most prized endorse-
ments in the Democratic Party on
one of the worst days of his politi-
cal career.
As the 78-year-old Sanders laid
in a hospital bed in Nevada after a
heart attack, with his presidential
campaign in jeopardy, his campaign
manager Faiz Shakir received a call
and passed the phone to the Ver-
mont senator. It was Rep. Alexan-
dria Ocasio-Cortez calling. She told
Sanders she was coming aboard his
campaign, months before she was
expected to issue an endorsement.
“Think about the courage of this
person who says, ‘You know, I know
what you just went through but I
have so much trust and confidence
in you that you are the one who will
fight the fight that I believe in. I’m
with you,’” Shakir told POLITICO
after news of the endorsement. “To
hear that was like, ‘Wow.’”
Ocasio-Cortez’s move came af-
ter a months-long courtship that
included meetings in Burlington,
Vt., late last month between her
and Sanders. She was joined by
another member of the so-called
squad, Rep. Ilhan Omar, who also
informed Sanders of her endorse-
ment on a phone call after his heart
attack, according to a source famil-
iar with her decision. A third squad
member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, is
expected to announce soon she is
backing Sanders as well, though she
said Wednesday she hasn’t made an
endorsement yet.
Ocasio-Cortez’s support is a
coup for the Vermont senator
and a setback for his liberal rival,
Elizabeth Warren. It came at an
opportune time for Sanders, whose
campaign was thrown into uncer-
tainty after he was hospitalized af-
ter a heart attack early this month.
Even before that, Sanders had been
overtaken by Warren in early-state
and national polls.
Sanders’ aides and allies did
not hide their excitement: Some
burst into tears and embraced one
another after news of the endorse-
ments broke.
“The man who’s really been
building the movement for a long
time is hospitalized with a heart
attack. At his age, no one thinks
that’s a good thing for the cam-
paign,” said Waleed Shahid, the
communications director for the
progressive group Justice Demo-
crats, which formed out of Sand-
ers’ 2016 campaign and recruited
Ocasio-Cortez to run for Congress.
“To have an endorsement right now
is to continue to say this is a cam-
paign that’s important to progres-
sives and people on the left.”
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez will
make their debut together on the
campaign trail Saturday in New
York City. Their rally is certain to
draw comparisons with the large
crowd that greeted Warren in the
city’s Washington Square Park last
month. It probably won’t be their
last event either: The teams are
discussing more rallies across the
primary states.
“We certainly hope that she will
be campaigning throughout the fall
with the senator,” said Sanders se-
nior adviser Jeff Weaver.
Ocasio-Cortez was an organizer
on Sanders’ 2016 campaign and
several of her aides have come from
his team. But she had been compli-
mentary of Warren and had held off
on endorsing.
Perhaps sensing an opportunity,
Warren had been aggressively cul-
tivating a relationship with Ocasio-
Cortez, penning an effusive piece
about her for the TIME 100 and
partnering with the freshman’s
office on several congressional
efforts.
Asked about the endorsements
on CNN after Tuesday night’s de-
bate, Warren said, “[L]ook, I have
great respect for all three of those
women. I think they are terrific.
And here’s what I know for sure,
when this primary is over, we are all
going to be on the same side.” Her
campaign declined to elaborate.
Sanders’ aides sensed that Oc-asio-Cortez’s endorsement was
within reach after she traveled to
Burlington in late September to talk
with Sanders and his team about
her priorities, especially the “Green
New Deal.” It’s not clear who pro-
posed the meetup in Vermont, but
Shakir scheduled an hour-plus
brunch between Ocasio-Cortez
and Sanders. Shakir joined them,
as did Jane Sanders and an aide to
the congresswoman.
“I remember when they sat and
talked to each other, it just felt like
people who just know each other
and understand each other,” Sha-
kir said. “They have been to some
degree within their own caucuses —
whether it’s the House caucus or the
Senate caucus — made to feel that
they’re outsiders looking in. And I
think they find [a] common bond
in that: That we are in a struggle
where even the establishment of the
Democratic Party doesn’t always
appreciate how we’re approaching
these issues.”
Omar, meanwhile, told her fel-low squad members that she had
decided to endorse Sanders shortly
after laying out her criteria for a
candidate at the People’s Presi-
dential Forum in Iowa last month,
according to the source familiar
with her decision. She had been
thinking about joining Sanders
for some time, the person said, and
talked with her allies about the im-
portance of not following the polls
but instead endorsing a candidate
based on the issues.
“The hospitalization raised the
stakes a lot, emotionally and po-
litically,” said Alexandra Rojas,
the executive director of Justice
Democrats. “They are all move-
ment people, they are all organizers
at heart, and they were inspired by
what he started in 2016,” she said
of the members of Congress who
endorsed Sanders.
Warren’s foreign policy, which is
seen by some progressives as more
hawkish than Sanders’ policy, was a
factor in Omar’s decision to endorse
him over the Massachusetts sena-
tor. In a video released Wednesday,
Omar said Sanders is “the only can-
didate that wants to make sure that
we end our endless wars.”
Omar is planning to hit the trail
for Sanders, and the senator is look-
ing to do a future rally with Tlaib,
whose district is in Michigan.
Sanders announced Wednesday
that he is joining Tlaib for a tour
of her district later this month. He
pulled off an upset victory in that
state in the 2016 primary in part
because he won over huge swaths
of Muslim voters. Tlaib and Omar
are the first Muslim women electedto Congress..
The lawmakers and Sanders are
also in talks about doing promo-
tional videos for him. Their sup-
port could potentially help Sanders
shore up his support among young
people, who have long been a key
part of his base but which he has
been bleeding somewhat to Warren
in some polls.
The endorsements come as
Sanders has begun drawing sharper
contrasts with Warren. He has pro-
posed plans for a wealth tax, stu-
dent loans cancellation and climate
change that are more far-reaching
than hers. And in an interview last
week, Sanders said Warren “has
said that she is a capitalist through
her bones — I’m not.”
Weaver said the squad members’
endorsements of Sanders will “fur-
ther cement his leadership of the
progressive wing of the Democratic
Party.”
“I think it’s time for progressives
to come together,” he said, “and de-
feat the conservative wing of the
party and win the nomination and
defeat Trump.”
The endorsements and a strong
debate performance Tuesday night
breathed new life into Sanders’
campaign after weeks of internal
anxiety. “You know, to quote one
of my favorite rappers LL Cool J,
‘Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been
here for years,’” said Nina T urner, a
co-chair of the Sanders campaign.
An exuberant Weaver said to
expect Sanders to work as hard
as ever. “Imagine Bernie now,” he
quipped, “with 100 percent blood
flow.”BY ALEX THOMPSON
AND HOLLY OTTERBEIN
Bernie snagged prized endorsement from hospital bed
AOC support is coup
for Vermont senator,
blow for competitor
Elizabeth Warren
GETTY IMAGES
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will stump together on
Saturday in New York. “We certainly hope that she will be campaigning
throughout the fall with the senator,” said Sanders adviser Jeff Weaver.