A4 eZ re THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAy, MARCH 19 , 2020
up a lead of 234 pledged delegates
over Sanders, with fewer t han h alf
of the t otal l eft up for grabs.
“I think there’s every reason in
the world for Bernie to assess and
get out,” said rep. Don Beyer
(D-Va.), a Biden supporter, includ-
ing the health and safety of older
voters more susceptible to t he c or-
onavirus.
“I definitely think it is” irre-
sponsible if Sanders stays in, B eyer
added.
former congressman Steve Is-
rael of New York, w ho once headed
the House Democrats’ campaign
organization, said that p rolonging
the p arty’s d ivides could endanger
its efforts in the fall. “The bigger
risk is t hat we go i nto t he fall f acing
Donald Trump with an unlimited
checkbook and as a dispirited and
divided Democratic Party,” Israel
said.
Some Democrats said that in-
stead of Sanders remaining a can-ery supporters may be slow to j oin
the B iden bandwagon.
“Just think about the difference
it would have made had we had
single-payer health care in this
country when coronavirus hit,”
said Derrick Crowe, a spokesman
for t he pro-Sanders group People’s
Action. “We need to see [Biden’s]
platform rise to t hat occasion.”
Some Sanders confidants have
said that beyond the policy pulpit
an extended campaign would give
them, there is an added incentive:
collecting delegates and building
leverage at the national conven-
tion to shape influential commit-
tees and press for the party to
adopt liberal positions on health
care, climate change and the e con-
omy.
But other Democrats said that
continuing the campaign could
undermine Sanders’s credibility,
particularly as the delegate math
is so daunting. Biden has openedand the candidates have suspend-
ed rallies and town halls.
many Biden allies were anxious
on Wednesday to bring an end to
the competition, fearing that a
prolonged battle would under-
mine the party’s ability to win in
November and create unnecessary
health risks for prospective voters.
“Bernie is the person — the one
person — who can essentially give
the B iden campaign permission to
start the general election, to start
talking to the [ Democratic N ation-
al Committee], to start building
the general election operation we
need,” s aid rufus Gifford, a former
ambassador to Denmark a nd a top
Biden fundraiser. “That’s why it
matters sooner rather than later.”
Sanders spent the day in Wash-
ington attending to business in the
Senate, where lawmakers were
working on legislation to soften
the blow of the pandemic. He told
reporters on Capitol Hill that he
planned to evaluate his future,
echoing the statement from his
campaign.
Sanders brushed aside a ques-
tion from a CNN reporter about
his potential departure, snapping
that he was dealing with a “global
crisis” a nd appending a n expletive
at t he start of his w ords.
rather than speak about the
primaries Tuesday night, Sanders
had unveiled a plan to combat the
coronavirus, laying out a $2 tril-
lion proposal he later p osted on his
campaign website that would en-
able medicare to cover all related
medical bills a nd f orce the govern-
ment to provide $2,000 monthly
payments t o Americans.
for many Sanders supporters,
the crisis has become a real-life
example of why the suite of liberal
policies he has long championed
— including a medicare-for-all
government insurance p rogram —
is so u rgently n eeded.
If anything, they say, the coro-
navirus gives him more justifica-
tion to stay in the contest and
promote his ideas. And regardless
of Sanders’s decision, his most fi-election 2020
didate, he could assert his influ-
ence by securing an agreement
from the B iden c ampaign t o adopt
some of his positions before pull-
ing out. Already, Biden has em-
braced a Sanders plan to make
public colleges and universities tu-
ition-free for students whose fami-
lies make l ess t han $ 125,000.
And Biden extended an olive
branch to Sanders supporters in a
Tuesday s peech: “ Let m e say, e spe-
cially t o the y oung voters who h ave
been inspired by Senator Sanders,
I hear y ou. I know w hat’s at s take,”
Biden said as the r esults came i n. “I
know what we have to do.”
rep. Andy Levin (D-mich.), who
endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren of
massachusetts in the primary, said
bringing together the two wings of
the Democratic Party would re-
quire careful choreography. He
said Biden’s r ecent announcement
that he’d select a woman as his
running mate, a nd endorsing War-
ren’s recommended overhaul of
bankruptcy rules, were a good
start.
But Levin said he was disap-
pointed that Biden told progres-
sives that he knew what needed to
be done. “That’s not it,” L evin said.
“This i s work t hat needs to be done
to bring people together.” Levin
added that he wanted Biden to
“back away f rom” a ttacks on medi-
care-for-all and frame it at least as
a goal.
The Biden and Sanders camps,
representing the final two major
candidates in the race, opened
lines of communication some time
ago. Before the last Democratic
debate, A nita D unn a nd Jeff Weav-
er, senior advisers to Biden and
Sanders, respectively, discussed
the arrangements, according to a
person with knowledge of the
talks. This person also spoke on
the condition of anonymity to de-
scribe private conversations. The
pair decided not to have an audi-
ence and discussed how the stage
would be set up.
The coronavirus outbreak has
given the campaigns an area for
negotiation that encompasses
many of the fights Sanders cares
most passionately a bout — p rovid-
ing health care to more Ameri-
cans, reducing economic i nequali-
ty and curbing the power of
wealthy corporations.
Still, many Sanders supporters
are distrustful of Biden, citing his
history of working with republi-
cans. They h ave been unimpressed
by his c oronavirus response, favor-
ing the more dramatic measures
Sanders has advocated. Some
Sanders supporters signaled that
they are beginning to accept the
reality o f Biden’s likely v ictory.
Alan minsky, executive director
of the pro-Sanders group Progres-
sive Democrats of America, said
Biden has a history of “not coming
down on the progressive side of
the p arty.” S till, he added, “Biden is
a savvy politician, so it’s not hope-
less to think that he might really
shift h is approach.”
Shakir, the Sanders campaign
manager, indicated in a statement
that Sanders was in no rush to
decide. “The next primary contest
is at least three weeks away,” he
said, adding that Sanders would
be laser-focused on the coronavi-
rus.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Annie linskey, Michael scherer and
John wagner contributed to this
report.make Sanders more comfortable
leaving the race.
The two campaigns “have been
in regular contact a t a senior level”
since last week to discuss how the
coronavirus pandemic is affecting
the c ampaigns, Bedingfield said i n
a statement to The Washington
Post, “as well as to discuss both
Vice President Biden’s and Sena-
tor Sanders’ ideas on policy re-
sponses to the virus.”
She a dded: “While the two cam-
paigns obviously have their differ-
ences, they are working together
to try to promote the health and
safety of their teams, those who
interact with the campaigns, and
the American people.” Sanders
communications director mike
Casca confirmed h er characteriza-
tion of the t alks.
Biden campaign officials have
also adopted an internal policy of
no longer attacking Sanders, ac-
cording to one of them, even as
some surrogates for the former
vice president increased public
pressure on the senator to step
aside. This person spoke on the
condition of anonymity to de-
scribe p rivate conversations.
The moves a re the clearest signs
yet that Sanders is giving serious
thought to ending his campaign,
which fell further behind on Tues-
day night after a drubbing i n three
more primaries, and that Biden’s
team is e ager to o ffer olive b ranch-
es to ease a potential departure.
If Sanders does exit, the Demo-
cratic Party will immediately con-
front the challenge of avoiding t he
type of bitter split that damaged
the party in 2016, when the Sand-
ers and Hillary Clinton camps re-
mained at odds after she captured
the nomination. many Democrats
think that dispute contributed to
Clinton’s loss in the general elec-
tion and hope to unify more fully
this time as they prepare t o take on
President Trump.
Sanders officials cautioned
Wednesday that the senator had
made no final decision and re-
mained a candidate, leaving open
the possibility that he might con-
tinue his campaign in the months
ahead despite having little chance
at the nomination. And tensions
between s upporters of both candi-
dates raised doubts about their
ability to c ome t ogether q uickly o r
smoothly.
“No sugarcoating it, last night
did not go the way we wanted,”
Sanders campaign manager faiz
Shakir said in an unusually sol-
emn email to supporters that re-
quested no money. After flying to
Vermont, Sanders and his wife in-
tend to consult supporters and
seek “input and assess the path
forward for o ur campaign,” S hakir
added.
Biden won double-digit victo-
ries in florida, Arizona and Illi-
nois on Tuesday, continuing a
dominant three-week stretch in
which he has built a nearly insur-
mountable l ead in delegates to the
Democrats’ nominating conven-
tion in July.
Adding to Sanders’s challenges,
those three contests could be the
last in the near future, giving him
little opportunity to change the
narrative or trajectory of the cam-
paign. The novel coronavirus has
hampered the primary s eason a nd
cast a cloud of uncertainty over the
coming weeks.
Several states have pushed b ack
their nominating contests in an
effort to avoid large gatherings,
cAmpAIgn from A
Desire for Democratic unity pushes campaigns to talk
MAtt rourKe/AssoCIAted Press
many Bernie Sanders supporters are distrustful of Joe Biden, citing his history of working with Republicans. They have been
unimpressed by his coronavirus response, favoring more dramatic measures that the senator from Vermont has advocated.sAlwAn georges/tHe wAsHIngton Post
Rather than address losing the Arizona, Florida and Illinois primaries to the f ormer vice
president on Tuesday, Sanders responded to the coronavirus crisis with a $2 trillion proposal.BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER
AND AMY GARDNERElections officials and party
leaders faced deepening dilem-
mas on Wednesday about how to
carry out the most fundamental
democratic exercise — v oting — i n
the face of the spread of the novel
coronavirus.
Additional states delayed con-
tests scheduled for the spring,
while Democratic Party leaders
stepped up their calls for states to
adopt emergency measures to en-
sure access to the polls as officials
pushed to limit the size of public
gatherings.
T he Democratic National C om-
mittee and the Wisconsin Demo-
cratic Party sought a solution in
federal court, suing Wisconsin
elections commissioners to get an
emergency judgment extending
Wednesday’s deadline to register
to vote electronically and by mail
and lifting requirements that ab-
sentee ballots be received by Elec-
tion Day.
The national party is confront-
ing vexing questions about its
projected timeline for concluding
the presidential nominating con-
test and putting forward a candi-
date at its July convention. While
former vice president Joe Biden
extended his dominant lead with
wins in Tuesday’s three primary
races, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
declined to bow out of the race
immediately.
The effort to develop voting
contingencies took on new urgen-
cy as the three contests that un-
folded on Tuesday showcased
what experts described as unprec-
edented challenges involved in
conducting in-person voting dur-
ing a public-health emergency.
The problems were most acute
in Illinois, where voters arrived at
some polling places to find no
election judges to run the process
or no hand sanitizer or wipes for
use on voting machines. Subur-
ban Cook County saw its lowest
voter turnout in 12 years.
“The United States of America
failed to live up to our democratic
ideals when our primary election
process broke down in a myriad of
ways across several states,” saidKen martin, the chairman of the
minnesota Democratic-farmer-
Labor Party as well as a DNC vice
chairman and president of the
Association of State Democratic
Committees.
martin urged all states to adopt
emergency measures to ensure
that voters do not lose access to
the polls as a result of public-
health precautions taken to slow
the spread of the virus.
Across the country, state and
local officials are wrestling with
how to do that.
West Virginia Secretary of
State mac Warner said Wednes-
day that his office would “ramp
up” absentee ballot opportunities
for the state’s may 12 primary,
following an advisory opinion
from the state’s attorney general
that alternative forms of balloting
could be expanded during a state
of emergency.
In Texas, where local elections
are scheduled for may 2, Gov. G reg
Abbott (r) suspended a provision
of the state’s election code to allow
local governments to postpone
those races. But questions loomed
over a runoff contest in a Senate
primary set for may 26, as the
Te xas Democratic Party urged the
secretary of state’s office to devel-op contingency plans to conduct
the election entirely by mail.
“A n all-mail election in which
county election officials mail a
ballot to every registered voter is
the only realistic option that en-
sures meaningful participation in
the elections while also protect-
ing public health,” t he chair of the
Te xas Democratic Party, Gilberto
Hinojosa, wrote monday in a let-
ter to Secretary of State ruth r.
Hughs. Her office did not respond
to a request for comment.
Te xas requires that voters re-
questing to vote early by mail
have an excuse, such as being 65
or older.
In Kansas, the state Democrat-
ic Party announced this week that
it is automatically sending mail-
in ballots to all registered Demo-
crats in the state. Ballots will be
mailed march 30 for the may 2
primary, w hich is run by the party
rather than the state.
In ohio, where Gov. mike De -
Wine (r) ordered polling places
closed on Tuesday, the state Dem-
ocratic Party asked the state Su-
preme Court to intervene to en-
sure that eligible voters would
have an adequate opportunity to
cast ballots. The motion argued
that ohio’s secretary of state, whoenvisioned the postponement of
in-person voting until June 2,
lacked the authority to set a new
date for the primary without ac-
tion by the legislature or a court.
In addition to ohio, four states
have delayed their presidential
primaries — Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana and maryland — with
others possibly following suit in
the coming days. Additional
states have delayed local, runoff
and special elections or have
moved to an all-mail system.
Citing President Trump’s w arn-
ing against public gatherings of
more than 10 people, Kay Ivey,
Alabama’s republican governor,
on Wednesday announced that a
runoff Senate election pitting for-
mer senator Jeff Sessions (r-Ala.)
against former Auburn football
coach To mmy Tuberville, origi-
nally scheduled for march 31,
would be delayed to July 14.
A resolution is moving forward
in Puerto rico to delay the presi-
dential primary, originally sched-
uled for march 29, to April 26. It i s
expected to win the governor’s
signature by the end of the week.
In Wisconsin, where the presi-
dential primary is scheduled for
April 7, the elections commission
has been proceeding under theassumption that the date won’t
change, according to a spokes-
man, reid magney. T he date of the
primary is inscribed in state law.
The Democratic lawsuit argues
that because of mounting corona-
virus cases and a statewide ban on
gatherings of more than 10 peo-
ple, eligible voters could be dis-
couraged from registering in per-
son.
It asks that online and mail-in
registration be extended to
April 3.
“A s Wisconsin citizens contin-
ue to distance themselves to en-
sure their safety, many will be
unwilling to risk their safety and
the safety of others by waiting in
line to register to vote and cast
their vote on election day,” the
filing states.
magney declined to comment
on the complaint. But at a meet-
ing on Wednesday, commission-
ers said they lacked the authority
to change deadlines and make
other changes without legislation
or intervention by a judge.
isaac.stanley-becker@
washpost.com
[email protected]Felicia sonmez contributed to this
report.Drive to salvage primary calendar intensifies as viral outbreak widens
Democrats press states
t o adopt alternatives
t o in-person voting“Bernie is the person —
the one person —
who can essentially give
the Biden campaign
permission to start
t he general election.”
Rufus Gifford,
former ambassador to denmark
a nd a top Biden fundraiser