opinion

Guest columnist: What Bernie’s surge means for Democrats in North Carolina

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has transformed himself from Ralph Nader 2.0 into a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Even his most ardent supporters, and I count myself among them, have been surprised by how fast and how far he’s risen. Bernie, as he’s known, has charged into the lead in New Hampshire and Iowa and has also flexed some serious fundraising muscle. Sanders pulled in more than $25 million during the third quarter of 2015, just $3 million behind frontrunner Hillary Clinton. This parity in fundraising is shocking given the track record of the Clinton fundraising machine. Bernie has passed 650,000 individual donors and, with that broad of a donor base, he will be able to fund a viable campaign beyond the early primary states.

A few months ago I was crushed when Elizabeth Warren definitively ruled out running. I figured Bernie’s role in the race was simply to pull Hillary Clinton to the left on economic issues and after Clinton won the presidency he would go back to the Senate to raise hell. Now, I’m not so sure Bernie can’t win the Democratic nomination. (I’m also much less confident Clinton can beat the Republican nominee next year, but that’s a whole different story.) And if Vice President Joe Biden jumps in the race, I think that opens the door even more for Sanders as the establishment battles it out. But for now, Clinton remains the prohibitive favorite. According to a USA Today poll released Oct. 1, Clinton leads with 41 percent to 23 percent for Sanders and 20 percent for Biden.

What’s driving Bernie’s surge is his populist economic message, which is wildly popular with the Democratic base and has a broad appeal among Americans of all ages and political parties. The middle class has been gutted by our economic policies and voters are angry. Sanders and Warren are successfully reframing the debate on economic issues by bringing discussion of “a living wage” into the mainstream. Even Donald Trump is railing against Wall Street and hedge fund managers and if Trump is right about one thing, it’s that the game is rigged for the one percenters. They have a very different approach, but Sanders and Trump basically agree that Wall Street runs our country, and that Congress is bought and paid for.

So what does all this mean for Democrats in North Carolina? Here in Buncombe County, Bernie’s supporters have organized big rallies for him and are passionately spreading his message online. If I were the betting sort, I’d put my money on Bernie to win the most votes in Buncombe during the Democratic presidential primary. Local Democrats running for election in 2016 are already aligning themselves with Sanders’ economic message as a tactic to appeal to Asheville’s progressive base.

On the statewide level, Bernie drew a crowd of more than 9,000 in Greensboro this summer and I expect we’ll see additional large rallies in North Carolina. The 2016 North Carolina primary election will take place on March 15, 2016, the same day as our state’s presidential primary. North Carolina has two huge races during the general election next year: Democrats are desperate to win the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate seat up in 2016 will be one of a handful nationally that could tip the balance of the Senate.

But will Bernie’s ardent supporters rally behind Democrats running in statewide races? North Carolina Democrats can win crossover votes by borrowing from Sanders’ and Warren’s populist economic message. Cut the “Manteo to Murphy” lines from decades past and borrow from Bernie’s policy specifics that are resonating with voters on both sides. When asked last year, 58 percent of North Carolina voters support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. Democrats must also frame the destruction of our educational system as an economic issue. North Carolina ranks an appalling 50th out of 51 states as the best for teachers (Washington, D.C. is included, and we beat out West Virginia).

In 1992, a political upstart named Bill Clinton rode into the White House with a message of “It’s the economy, stupid.” North Carolina Democrats would be well served to remember that many, many families in our state are living paycheck to paycheck.

Aaron Sarver is a politics junkie who grew up in Wilmington and graduated from North Carolina State University. He has called Asheville home since 2009. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronsarver