Amazingly, 37 “Berniecrats” ran for office in Washington state during the primary election August 2. This information comes from the website berniecrats.net, where folks are keeping track of this new movement of activist politicians.
Seattle’s Pramila Jayapal is a Democratic Party candidate for US Congress running under this new progressive ticket. She’s hoping to win Jim McDermott’s seat in the House of Representatives following his retirement.
All across the country, people are challenging incumbents as a result of the populist Bernie Sanders phenomenon, which swept through the nation and almost got him nominated as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. Another result of his campaign has been the birth of the Brand New Congress movement, which aims to replace many members of the House and Senate with progressives and independents. (brandnewcongress.org)
Local media hasn’t done a good job covering these Berniecrats. In fact, most of them are being ignored completely, but their influence on the local political scene and on Capitol Hill may have far reaching effects.
To put it simply, they are exerting pressure in political races where there is usually very little opposition or criticism of the candidates. Some of incumbents, including Governor Jay Inslee, are being challenged to move beyond “business as usual” and to start addressing vital issues like providing adequate funding for public education, transforming the region into a green economy, eliminating mass homelessness and poverty, etc.
There have been too many new candidates to name here, but a few progressive Democrats have impressed me during our interviews:
Wes Irwin running for the Washington State House of Representatives in the 32nd District, former labor union leader Bob Hasagawa seeking re-election in the Washington State Senate in the 11th District, Noel Frame running for the 36th District Senate seat, and candidate for US Congress Pramila Jayapal
Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant is also listed as a “Berniecrat” by the Berniecrat Network. Hasagawa, Sawant and Frame are actually incumbents who have gained a lot of support from Sanders supporters. Jayapal is currently a member of the Washington Senate. She came out very early, along with Sawant, to endorse Bernie Sanders when no other members of Congress and very few state legislators were willing to stand out in front of the political crowd to support him.
One of the results of this grassroots movement may be that longtime progressive congressman Jim McDermott’s seat may go to a woman who is even more outspoken and perhaps “controversial” on many social and political issues. McDermott was derisively referred to as “Baghdad Jim” by conservative war hawks in Congress. If they thought he was a thorn in their side, wait until Berniecrat Pramila Jayapal takes her seat in Congress! She may not have the seniority he enjoyed, but she will definitely be a fighter for progressive causes in the tradition of Jim McDermott, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Berniecrats are running for local and national office across the US. In Washington State, candidates Jayapal, Hasagawa, and Frame all won large majorities of the vote during their primary elections.
Republican candidates did not fare well at all during this election cycle. It looks like the usual GOP challenge for the Governor’s office may fail once again. Despite our current state public education K-12 funding crisis, Governor Inslee won his primary with 49% of the vote. Republican candidate Bill Bryant received only 38%.
The public scandal here is that only 34% of registered voters bothered to mail in their ballots even though they were given several weeks to decide! Democrats will need to do a better job of getting out the vote during the general election in November.
Washington State Secretary of State website lists results of primary elections:
results.vote.wa.gov/…
(Revised) Originally published by Capitol Hill Times.
