After Tuesday's primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders chances of winning the Democratic nomination are incredibly slim.

But Sanders should stay in the race to give the progressive wing of the party a voice and push Joe Biden to adopt certain policies.

Sanders staying in the race will also keep his followers involved and give him time to work out a plan to unify the party with Biden.

Sanders can also carry more delegates to the convention, giving progressives more of a voice in the party platform and rules.

Sam Adler-Bell is a freelance writer in New York who has written for The New Republic, The Intercept, and other publications. He cohosts the podcast "Know Your Enemy."

David Segal is a progressive strategist and former member of the Providence, RI City Council and Rhode Island General Assembly.

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the authors.

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Tuesday was another bad day for the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Amid mixed messages from the campaigns, public health officials, and the DNC about the safety of voters and poll workers amid the coronavirus pandemic, Democratic voters headed gingerly to the polls in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois. A fourth contest, in Ohio, was postponed at the direction of Governor Mike DeWine, who declared a public health emergency on Monday night.

Former Vice President Joe Biden swept the field, currently winning by 12 points in Arizona, 23 in Illinois, and 39 in Florida. Despite concerns about COVID-19, turnout was up from 2016 levels in Florida and Arizona, thanks to early and absentee voting in those states. Turnout in Illinois, which had many fewer early voters, will be well below its 2016 numbers.

Unsurprisingly, Tuesday's results have amplified existing calls from pundits and Democratic Party insiders for Sanders to drop out. "The conversation is going to quickly turn to how and when does Bernie Sanders unite the Democratic Party," said former Senator Claire McCaskill on MSNBC Tuesday night. "I think it is time."

"The will of the people is speaking loud and clear," tweeted Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden, "Time to unite to deal with a national crisis."



But for Sanders to drop out now would be a mistake, not only for the progressive forces he represents, but for the Democratic Party and the country.

Ending the primary over coronavirus concerns is a mistake

First, let's address what might appear the strongest argument against continuing the primary: that continuing the contest endangers voters amid the present coronavirus crisis.

It is straightforwardly true that holding normal elections right now is a grave threat to public health. Even when proper precautions are taken, polling places — through which hundreds or thousands of people pass on a single day — could become concentrated sites of infection.

However, ending the presidential primary will not solve this problem; many states have ballot measures, referenda, and other local contests occurring simultaneously with the presidential primary.

Unless officials are planning to suspend all democratic processes between now and the resolution of the coronavirus pandemic (a terrifying and probably unconstitutional precedent in many states), Sanders's presence in the primary is not the deciding factor as to whether Americans will need to vote during the outbreak. This is a structural problem that must be solved regardless of the Sanders campaign's decisions.

Every state should be concentrating on making voting by mail available and accessible. Rhode Island, for instance, advanced such measures on Monday; its Board of Elections is seeking to move the primary from April to June and will strive to maximize the use of absentee ballots. The moment calls for making voting easier for everyone, not arbitrarily ending one electoral contest.

A joint statement from both campaigns calling for delaying primaries until June, enabling mail voting in every state, and encouraging supporters to vote by mail rather than in person would be powerful and persuasive to the DNC, election officials, and voters.

Sanders staying in would be better for party unity

Second, figures like Jim Clyburn have argued for weeks that Sanders should drop out to allow the party to unify behind Biden and avoid a long, divisive primary like 2016.

To begin with, however, it's not clear that hastening a heightened focus on a contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is in Biden's best interest.

Trump has demonstrated a predisposition to launch vicious attacks on Biden, whether based on mental acuity, potential family conflicts of interest related to a Ukrainian oil company, or as he otherwise sees fit. If Biden can't weather a robust debate about the Democratic Party's platform with his (actual) friend Sanders, that does not bode well in a contest against Trump.

Moreover, it may be better for party unity if Sanders stays in.

Hasty calls from establishment figures for Sanders to drop out are exacerbating polarization within the party. Sanders's base — of young and disaffected voters — already distrusts Democratic insiders.

From their perspective, the DNC and various moderate figures have waged an "anyone but Bernie" campaign from the beginning of the 2020 contest. Bridging that divide is the obligation of every Democrat hoping to defeat Trump, including and especially those who disagree with or dislike Bernie Sanders.

To that end, as the likelihood of a Sanders victory declines, Biden and Sanders ought to begin an intentional, de-escalatory, public conversation during which Biden makes explicit policy and personnel assurances to Sanders, while Sanders begins the process of leading his supporters toward Biden. This cooperation would strengthen the resolve of the Sanders base to remain active through November.

How to come together

We suggest guarantees not just of policies but also regarding key personnel decisions because the latter are more enforceable and structural, and one cannot trust that policy promises will be acted upon in good faith unless one trusts the personnel in charge of executing them.

Plutocrats who have been reported as possible senior appointments in a Biden administration like JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, billionaire former mayor Michael Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley executive Tom Nides, and Bank of America executive Anne Finucane should be established as no-goes.

Furthermore, amid this COVID-19 crisis, Sanders is well positioned to demand that top appointments to the Department of Health and Human Services, including those who oversee Medicaid and Medicare, are people with a proven commitment to the public's interest — and not insurance and pharmaceutical industry lobbyists or executives.

In general, personnel appointees should be conditioned on their willingness and ability to implement a progressive policy agenda.

Only this kind of explicit and orchestrated unification process — founded on substantive, actionable agreements, rather than mere rhetoric — can best position Democrats to win in November.

Bringing progressive voices to the convention

For supporters of the Sanders agenda, the argument for his staying in is more straightforward, but no less crucial: Sanders must continue to collect delegates for the convention.

If he were to leave today, Sanders would have around 20% of delegates at the convention. If he continues to garner a sizable minority of the vote — as recent polling suggests he will — he'd end up with more like 35% to 40%. (And while his odds are indeed long, the aperture through which he might secure the nomination has not completely closed.)

The convention, in whatever COVID-19-adapted form it takes, makes determinations not just about the Party's nominee, but also about other critical matters like the Party's platform and rules. It's imperative that the progressive wing be duly represented in those processes.

To be sure, many of Biden's rank-and-file voters are pretty progressive too. If exit polls are an indication, many of them support Sanders's more robust agenda, including Medicare for All.

Many Democrats have approached the primary from the perspective of electability alone and become convinced that Biden is a safer bet, but most of these voters also like Sanders. But Biden's convention delegate bloc is likely to be disproportionately composed of party insiders, some with attachments to corporate and ideological foes of the progressive movement. Thus, a convention without Sanders's delegates would not represent the true political priorities of the Democratic base.

Finally, in the unlikely event that the convention was tasked with choosing somebody other than Biden or Sanders as the nominee, it would be all the more important that progressives have proportional representation among convention delegates so that such a process could incorporate the input of an ideological cross-section of the party.

These are strange and terrifying times. An unprecedented public health crisis has become entwined with and amplified by existing deficits in our democratic institutions and our social safety net. Now, more than ever, it's vital that the Democratic nominating contest be one all voters can trust, and whose aim is to arrive at a nominee and platform that represents every Democratic voter.

Under most scenarios, this is an outcome over which the Biden and Sanders camps have substantial control. To achieve it, we believe that Bernie Sanders must stay in this contest.

Sam Adler-Bell is a freelance writer in New York who has written for The New Republic, The Intercept, and other publications. He cohosts the podcast "Know Your Enemy."

David Segal is a former Democratic Rhode Island State Representative, and served on the Providence City Council as a member of the Green Party. Segal's opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and other newspapers.