Elizabeth Warren's exit doesn't mean Bernie Sanders gets her progressive supporters, experts say
WASHINGTON – Sen. Elizabeth Warren's departure from the Democratic presidential race has removed any competition Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders faced for progressive voters.
But that doesn't mean he'll automatically get her supporters.
Though Sanders shares the Massachusetts senator's liberal ideology and her efforts to rein in the reach of corporations, her supporters tended to be college-educated women who backed structural changes rather than the political "revolution" Sanders consistently champions.
The areas she did well in during an otherwise disappointing Super Tuesday included upscale suburbs of Northern Virginia, the Raleigh Durham, N.C., area and Nashville, Tennessee.
And some Warren supporters remain angry at Sanders for not getting out of the race in 2016 and endorsing Hillary Clinton sooner than he did, and for allegedly telling Warren in December that a woman could never win the presidency – a claim he characterized as "ludicrous."
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“I don’t know that Sanders is the second choice of Warren's voters,” said Matt Dallek, a professor of political management at George Washington University. “I don’t necessarily see her withdrawal helping Sanders very much, if at all.”
Warren told Rachel Maddow in an interview on MSNBC Thursday night that she had a “short” conversation with Sanders about the viciousness of some of his supporters. Many have attacked the Massachusetts Senator for not dropping out earlier to endorse Sanders before Super Tuesday, where he fell short in several states.
“We are responsible for the people who claim to be our supporters,” she said.
A Morning Consult survey conducted this week found that 43% of Warren’s supporters backed Sanders as their second-choice candidate compared to 36% who chose former Vice President Joe Biden. The poll of Democratic primary voters, collected before former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out and endorsed Biden, has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
But the survey indicates Warren, who had won 65 of the 1,284 delegates already awarded, could give either candidate a significant boost if she decides to endorse.
"Not today," she responded when asked if she would announce her support for one of the frontrunners . "I need some space around this and we're going to take a little time to think a little more."
Biden has won slightly more delegates than Sanders so far in the race for the nomination.
Speaking from his home town of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders made an appeal to Warren voters.
“I would simply say to her supporters out there, of whom there are millions, ‘We are opening the door to you. We’d love you to come on board. Together, I think we can win this primary process. Together we can defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of America'," he said.
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Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said Warren's exit also should not be seen as a boon for Sanders. But elections have consistently shown when a candidate drops out, their backers don't necessarily flock to the person who closest aligns with their first choice's policies.
"It’s about personalities," Sabato said. "The followers of one candidate cannot be moved en masse to another."
One day before Warren announced she was suspending her campaign, Travis Akers, a U.S. Navy veteran and gun control activist who endorsed Warren, wrote on Twitter that he was going to vote for Biden if Warren officially drops out.
"We are at a moment in our lifetime where the person at the top of the ticket matters more than any other time," he tweeted Wednesday. "I, quite frankly, believe that if Bernie Sanders were that person, not only do we lose to Trump, but down ballot candidates in toss up states will [be] damaged as well."
In addition, Sanders could be hurt by the way some of his aggressive supporters, known as "Bernie Bros," went after Warren when she was in the race.
Actress Yvette Nicole Brown, a Warren supporter who announced on Twitter she'll be voting for Biden, said Sanders backers flooded her with replies on social media attacking her choice.
When a Sanders supporter tweeted to Brown saying "Bernie is closer to Warren on the issues" and that "big structural change" won't happen under Biden, Brown responded: "With respect, Bernie is NOTHING like Liz when it comes to decency and temperament."
Not all Warren supporters will be going to Biden though.
Comedian Phillip Henry, who supported Warren, tweeted Thursday that he'll be voting for Sanders because of his progressive policies.
"I’d encourage anyone else who supported Warren to do the same," Henry wrote. "Assess the privilege you have if you can change your vote from progressive to center overnight."
The departure of Warren and, earlier this week, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar effectively ends the possibility of a woman winning the White House in 2020.
With Biden and Sanders duking it out to face President Donald Trump in November, the only female still in the race is Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard who has won only two delegates.
Teri Finneman, author of Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s-2000s, said the narrative that Warren took progressive voters away from Sanders is sexist when no one is discussing that Sanders took voters away from her.
"The word choices are making her be the problem, her being the spoiler, her taking away from a male candidate in what should be his place in the sun, instead of the other way around," she said. "People seem to think that sexism has to be just completely obvious and out there when really it's the subtleness of the sexism, that is the biggest problem."
Contributing: Will Cummings, Savannah Behrmann
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elizabeth Warren's exit: Does it help campaign of Sanders or Biden?
