Latest Opinion Polling Shows Democrats Want Bernie Sanders-Styled Candidates to Run
The latest public opinion polling from YouGov published on Wednesday, July 11 has shown that a majority of Democratic Party voters want federal political candidates to be more like the former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Based on several interviews with 1,500 American adults from July 8 to July 10 of 2018, 57% of self-identified Democrats want their candidates to be more like Sanders, but 16% said less and 27% were not sure. While 13% of self-identified Republicans want Sanders-like candidates to run and 74% do not want candidates to be like the senator, independent voters were split where 27% said more like Sanders, 35% said less, and 38% were not sure.
Since Sander’s first presidential run two years ago in 2016, many Americans are becoming more supportive on a wide variety of progressive policies. According to recent 2017 and 2018 public opinion polling from the Pew Research Center and a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation study, a majority of American adults surveyed have expressed support for universal healthcare coverage, including rising popularity for a Medicare-for-All single-payer system in which the government is the sole health care insurance provider and the remaining majority of hospitals, medical clinics, and doctor’s offices or practices remain privatized. In a recent 2017 poll from the Campaign for Free College Tuition, 88% of voters who supported Clinton and 54% of voters who supported Trump are in favor of state initiatives to make public colleges and universities tuition-free as well as affordable and accessible for qualified in-state residents.
These polls are becoming more apparent as progressive Democratic, third party, or independent candidates endorsed by organizations such as Our Revolution, Justice Democrats, Progressive Democrats of America, Democratic Socialists of America, Brand New Congress, etc. are winning primary elections nationwide ahead of the general elections in the fall of November. Some notable wins included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York City, Ben Jealous in Maryland, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Randall Woodfin in Birmingham, Alabama, Khalid Kamu in South Fulton, Georgia, and Kara Eastman in Ohama, Nebraska. Other notable candidates who seek to win include Cynthia Nixon in New York state, Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Kevin de Leon in California, Kenneth Meijia in Los Angeles, and Cori Bush in St. Louis, Missouri.
