American progressives have much to thank Bernie Sanders for. The unexpected success of the democratic socialist and long-serving Vermont senator in the 2016 presidential primary helped push the Democratic party leftwards, demonstrating that once-fringe ideas like Medicare for All (universal health coverage) are popular with voters.
Sanders was the ideological lodestar for a youthful and diverse new generation of congressional progressives, including New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and America’s first Muslim congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. It’s thanks to Bernie that the crowded 2020 presidential primary is already packed full of candidates vying for the progressive vote. Four of them – senators Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Cory Booker of New Jersey – are co-sponsors of Sanders’ Medicare For All Bill.
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