Vermont senator and DNC chairman embark on eight-state, 6,000 mile ‘come together, fight back’ tour to unify the party after a stinging election night loss

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Bernie Sanders and Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez have kicked off a multi-state campaign tour, hoping to harness the energy of the movement that mobilized in opposition to Donald Trump.

“I’ve got one question: are you ready for a political revolution?” Vermont senator Sanders asked, thrilling a raucous crowd in Portland, Maine, on Monday night.

“Well, you’ve come to the right place.”

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Portland, a liberal city in a state Sanders won during the 2016 Democratic caucuses, was the first stop in the eight-state, 6,000 mile “come together, fight back” tour.

Along the way, the pair will travel to competitive states like Florida, as well as traditionally conservative ones like Kentucky and Texas, where liberal voters have long felt abandoned by the Democratic party. The tour ends in Las Vegas, Nevada, a swing state that elected Democrats up and down the ballot on election night 2016.

The team-up is part of an effort to unify the party after a stinging election night loss that left the party fractious and leaderless. With the 2018 congressional election on the horizon, Democrats are working to capitalize on the liberal movement that’s coalesced in opposition to Trump’s agenda.

“The mission of the new DNC is not simply to elect the president of the United States – it’s to elect Democrats from the school board to the Senate,” the new chairman told the crowd.

During his speech, Perez impersonated Trump, mocking the president’s about-face on labeling China a currency manipulator, and slipped in colorful language to hammer Republicans on their failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

“I don’t know what to call it – Trumpcare? Ryancare?” Perez said of the Republican healthcare plan. “I’ll tell you what I’d call it: ‘I don’t care’ because those Republican leaders and President Trump don’t give a shit about the people they were trying to hurt.”

But it was Sanders, the one-time presidential candidate whose outsider bid for the Democratic nomination revealed deep fractures in the party, who electrified the crowd in a testament to his enduring popularity among progressive voters.

“Our job is to radically transform the Democratic party,” the Vermont independent said to sustained cheers, while Perez, the party’s new leader stood backstage.



The goal, Sanders said, was to transform the Democratic party “into a 50-state party, and a party which does not continue to ignore half of the states in our country including some of the poorest states in America. Our job is to create a democratic Democratic party – a grassroots party – where decisions are made from the bottom on up, not from the top on down.”

Sanders and Perez share a similar vision for the future Democratic party but were in opposite camps during the campaign for DNC chair – Sanders was a vocal supporter of Perez’s opponent, Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison.

Sanders earned sustained applause when he told the crowd that he would soon introduce legislation that would establish a “Medicare for all, single-payer” healthcare program.

As Sanders and Perez embark on their rebuilding tour, a special congressional election in Kansas last week showed that Democrats are still quick to blame one another in the face of defeat.

Last Tuesday, Republican Ron Estes, scraped out a single-digit victory against his Democratic opponent James Thompson, in a surprisingly competitive race for the deeply conservative district. Democrats hailed Thompson’s unexpectedly strong performance, but party strategists came under fire for not investing more in Thompson’s campaign.

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“It is true that the Democratic party should have put more resources into that election,” Sanders said on CNN on Sunday.

But Perez disagreed with that assessment in an interview with NPR on Monday ahead of the tour.

“What’s remarkable about that race is that is a beet-red district. Republicans usually win by about 30 to 35 points. They won by single digits,” Perez said.

“If we replicate that success everywhere, we will flip the House in 2018. And we’re making tremendous progress. We’ve already made investments in a race that will take place tomorrow in Georgia.”

Thompson has since urged Democrats to stop debating why he lost and focus instead on the upcoming elections.

James Thompson (@JamesThompsonKS) Appreciate the support, but rather than place blame for why I lost, please use energy to help @ossoff & @RobQuistforMT. We need to unite!

All eyes now turn to Georgia, where Democrats are hoping to pull off what would be a stunning upset in an election for a long-held GOP seat on Tuesday.