Bernie Sanders Campaign Sets Thousands of House Parties for Supporters

By Sydney Ember
April 27, 2019

Excerpt:

On Saturday, Mr. Sanders’s campaign plans to kick off its national organizing program with what it says are roughly 5,000 events across every state. Mr. Sanders plans to address supporters via livestream. The weekend also marks something of a turning point for Mr. Sanders’s campaign. For the first two months of his presidential run, he mostly held big rallies in early nominating states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The rallies were intended, in part, to showcase the enthusiastic crowds he is capable of mustering, but also doubled as opportunities to sign up supporters. Now, with the field largely set, the events this weekend reflect the campaign’s next stage — turning the names on those lists into active volunteers.

“I’m not going to tell you that money is not important — we’re going to raise a great deal of money,” Mr. Sanders said in a phone interview on Friday afternoon. “But at the end of the day, I believe now — and I’ve always believed — that grass-roots activism is more important and more effective than 30-second television ads.”

Mr. Sanders, perhaps more than any other candidate, is betting his campaign’s success on his grass-roots appeal. He hopes to have an army of volunteers spreading his message on the ground — knocking on doors, handing out leaflets, engaging on social media — to say nothing of the money his campaign hopes to continue raising through individual donations. He is also aiming to get volunteers involved in a “massive voter-registration drive,” focusing in particular on working-class and young people, he said.

“I think we are doing well in hanging on to the support of the folks that we had last time — not 100 percent, that’s for sure — and also reaching out and bringing new people in,” he said. “But you know? That’s what the fight is about.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/politics/bernie-sanders-2020-events.html


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