Raul Grijalva

Ever since Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy last year, he’s said the same thing at every diner stop, every rally and every campaign event: “It’s not about me, it’s about us.” That’s as true today as it was a week or a month ago, and the community — the “us” — that he’s empowered and brought together demands a voice on the national stage now more than ever.

What that means in practice is that Sanders needs to keep doing what he’s doing. He needs to keep speaking to crowds 15,000 strong who believe in a better political system. He needs to keep sharing the message of debt-free college and universal health care. He needs to keep bringing a progressive vision for the future to communities that have never heard it before, and that respond favorably every time.

There’s been a lot of talk about Democratic unity lately, and a lot of it has missed the point. Unity doesn’t mean Sanders closes up shop tomorrow and takes back everything he said. It means including people who have responded to Sanders’ call for a new way of doing things. It means acknowledging that his message is the future of the Democratic Party and of our country. On a purely political level, it means admitting that Sanders speaks for millions of Americans. Unity is a two-way street.

I remain as strong a Sanders supporter now as I was the day I became the first member of Congress to endorse him. I believe that he understands this moment, in all its dimensions, better than anyone else.

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He’s done the right thing from the first day he hit the trail, and I support him because I know he’ll continue to do the right thing. He knows how important it is to defeat Donald Trump in November. He also knows something the pundits are overlooking: that the right way to do that is to move the Democratic Party forward, to challenge it, to bring in new people, to keep speaking truth to power.

Bernie is one of our party’s most effective leaders, and will be until he leaves public service. Every day he shares his message is a good day for the United States of America and for the Democratic Party, and I hope he keeps doing it.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., was an early backer of Bernie Sanders.