ST. PAUL, Minnesota – Senator Bernie Sanders protested the political establishment during a rally Monday night as more moderate rivals worked to slow down momentum by building support around Joe Biden on the eve of the vote Super Tuesday.
“As you all know – you can’t miss it if you turn on the television – the establishment in this country, the economic establishment and the political establishment, are getting very nervous,” Sanders told the crowd. “They watch rallies like this and say …” What’s going on here? “”
Sanders took center stage at the Saint Paul RiverCentre as three of his former opponents – US Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, former mayor of South Bend, mayor of Indiana Pete Buttigieg and former U.S. representative Beto O ‘ Rourke of Texas – gathered at a rally in Dallas. at approve the former vice president.
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Together, the three endorsements represented a coalescence within the wing of the Democratic Party establishment, whose members are increasingly afraid that the Sanders campaign will exploit their division and accede to the nomination.
Sanders leads the race for delegates after contests in the first four advance voting states. And it has consistently surpassed its fundraising competitors, bringing in more than $ 46 million in February alone.
However, Sanders opened his rally with an attempt at unity.
His supporters applauded the end of the Klobuchar and Buttigieg campaigns. But Sanders praised the two, claiming that Klobuchar is “one of the hardest workers I know,” and calling Buttigieg’s campaign is both “historic” and “courageous”.
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“Tonight I want to open the door to Amy’s supporters, Pete’s supporters,” he said. “We all have our differences. But I also know that virtually all of Amy’s and Pete’s supporters understand that we must be heading for a government that believes in justice, not greed. “
Sanders also dulled the fledgling “boos” from the crowd for Biden.
“Joe is a decent guy, he’s just wrong on the questions,” said Sanders, before going through these questions in detail.
He struck Biden for taking contributions to the campaign from wealthy donors, voting for the war in Iraq and voting for “disastrous” trade deals.
A third of the available delegates are up for grabs Great Tuesday, including 75 in Minnesota.
Although there have been relatively few polls about the state, a Minnesota Star Tribune / MPR News poll from last week showed Sanders a strong position – especially after Klobuchar ended his campaign earlier on Monday.
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The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5%, showed that Klobuchar was leading Sanders by 6 percentage points – 29% to 23%. Senator Elizabeth Warren followed at 11% and Biden was 8%.
According to the Associated Press, more than 57,000 Democratic ballots have already been cast through the state’s advance voting system. Last Wednesday was the deadline for these voters to change their minds.
In previous years, the state used a party-managed caucus, which in 2016 attracted approximately 207,000 participants.
