People involved in the effort said they signed the letter before Sen. Bernie Sanders officially launched a 2020 presidential bid in the hopes that it would spur real action within his campaign (if he opts to run). | Ethan Miller/Getty Images Elections Bernie alumni seek meeting to address ‘sexual violence’ on ’16 campaign The signees are looking to change what they call a pervasive culture of toxic masculinity in the campaign world.

More than two dozen women and men who worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign are seeking a meeting with the senator and his top political advisers to “discuss the issue of sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign, for the purpose of planning to mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle,” according to a copy of letter obtained by POLITICO.

“In recent weeks there has been an ongoing conversation on social media, in texts, and in person, about the untenable and dangerous dynamic that developed during our campaign,” they wrote.


Organizers of the effort said they did not intend for the letter to become public, but they confirmed that they sent it to senior Sanders officials on Sunday afternoon.

Friends of Bernie Sanders, the senator’s principal campaign committee, responded to the letter in a statement to POLITICO. “We thank the signers of the letter for their willingness to engage in this incredibly important discussion,” the statement reads. “We always welcome hearing the experiences and views of our former staff. We also value their right to come to us in a private way so their confidences and privacy are respected. And we will honor this principle with respect to this private letter.”

The committee also pointed to new policies implemented during the senator’s 2018 reelection campaign that included creating a toll-free hotline run by a third party to report incidents and mandating training for all staff and volunteers.

The signees did not describe specific instances of “sexual violence and harassment” that occurred on the campaign. The statement circulated broadly over the past weekend among former staffers who added their names in support and was not specific to people who had experienced harassment or violence.

Several people who signed the letter said that their effort is not just about Sanders’ 2016 or 2020 presidential campaigns, but rather about what they called a pervasive culture of toxic masculinity in the campaign world. They stressed that they hoped their letter would not be reduced to reinforcing the “Bernie Bro” caricature, but rather would be part of a larger reckoning among people who run campaigns.

“This letter is just a start,” said one of the organizers who declined to be named. “We are addressing what happened on the Bernie campaign, but as people that work in this space we see that all campaigns are extremely dangerous to women and marginalized people and we are attempting to fix that.”

People involved in the effort said they signed the letter before Sanders (I-Vt.) officially launches a 2020 presidential bid in the hope that it would lead to real action if and when the senator begins assembling his team. Organizers wrote they wanted the meeting to produce a plan for “implementing concrete sexual harassment policies and procedures; and a commitment to hiring diverse leadership to pre-empt the possibility of replicating the predatory culture from the first presidential campaign.”

The signees range from field organizers to some of the top officials on the 2016 campaign, according to multiple people involved in the effort. Some of the signees do not expect to join any 2020 campaign, while others are open to joining a potential Sanders 2020 bid.

The letter also requested the meeting to be in-person, with an unrecorded phone line for those who cannot attend, and that it include 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver; Sanders‘ chief of staff Caryn Compton; deputy chief of staff Ari Rabin-Havt; the campaign manager for Sanders’ 2018 reelection effort, Shannon Jackson; and top communications official Arianna Jones, along with Sanders himself.

“It is critically important that Senator Sanders attend this meeting to understand the full scope of the issue from 2016 and how the campaign plans to move forward,” the letter states.

The letter is just the latest instance of potential Democratic presidential candidates and lawmakers of both parties confronting a culture of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and allegations of sexual assault.

Several members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, resigned or announced their retirement in 2017 and 2018 in the wake of allegations about their own behavior or conduct of their top aides. Earlier this month, both chambers of Congress passed legislation to combat harassment that required members of Congress to pay for settlements instead of relying on taxpayer dollars.

Democratic professionals and progressive grass-roots organizers, in particular, are pushing the party and its leaders to be more vigilant about misbehavior, especially given the rise of the Women’s March and #MeToo movements.

The issue is particularly fraught for potential 2020 presidential campaigns. As likely campaigns interview staffers, there has already been a higher level of scrutiny for past predatory or misogynistic behavior, according to several people involved in possible campaigns.

A longtime top staffer to Sen. Kamala Harris resigned earlier this month after The Sacramento Bee found that the California Department of Justice had settled a lawsuit against him for $400,000 that included allegations of gender harassment and retaliation while he served under Harris when she was state attorney general.

“We were unaware of this issue and take accusations of harassment extremely seriously. This evening, Mr. [Larry] Wallace offered his resignation to the senator and she accepted it,” Harris spokeswoman Lily Adams told the Bee.