WASHINGTON — Dozens of Democrats across the party’s political spectrum quickly endorsed Kamala Harris for president over the last 72 hours, but Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., says he’s not ready to join them just yet.
Sanders said Tuesday evening that he hopes Harris defeats Donald Trump in November, telling reporters: “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that she becomes president” — but with a caveat that he needs to see more from her.
Sanders stopped short of an endorsement, saying Harris needs to outline a specific plan to help working-class people before he will formally back her campaign.
“I look forward to strongly supporting her. But I think if she is going to win, she’s going to have to focus a great deal of attention on the plight of the American working class, come up with some very specific suggestions as to how she’s going to address the reality that 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said, without outlining what specifics he hopes to see from her.
Harris has “to make it clear that she’s on the side of the working class of this country. If she does that, she’s going to win, and I think she can win big.”
Asked whether Harris’ choice of a running mate is important to his endorsement, Sanders said, “Yes, it is.”
Sanders had demanded similar commitments from Joe Biden before he supported him in the past. Sanders has tended to seize opportunities to elevate his key issues, like expanding Social Security and raising the minimum wage. In fact, Sanders had publicly backed Biden up until the moment he dropped out of the 2024 race, saying Biden still had a path to victory if he supported expanded Medicare benefits, a bigger child tax credit and tax hikes on the wealthy to preserve Social Security.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a fellow progressive, had also backed Biden until the end of his campaign as she pressed him to embrace a bolder agenda. But she endorsed Harris hours after Biden left the race Sunday.
“Now more than ever, it is crucial that our party and country swiftly unite to defeat Donald Trump and the threat to American democracy,” Ocasio-Cortez said on X.
Forty-eight Democratic senators have endorsed Harris, along with 175 House members, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York.
A majority of pledged delegates to the Democratic convention have also endorsed Harris ahead of an early August vote to make her the party’s nominee for president.
