A Democratic member of the Electoral College is bucking his party and casting his vote for Vermont senator Bernie Sanders today.
David Bright, who is one of Maine’s four presidential electors, outlined his reasoning for voting for Sanders — who narrowly lost the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton — as a way to thank him for bringing millions of young people into politics with an engaging message and campaign. In a Facebook post, Bright pointed out that Sanders decisively won Maine’s Democratic caucus earlier this year, which brought out thousands of young and first-time voters.
“I cast my vote to represent thousands of Democratic Maine voters – many less than a third my age – who came into Maine politics for the first time this year because of Bernie Sanders. They organized, telephoned and sent in their 27 dollars,” Bright wrote. “Many stood in line for hours in order to navigate our byzantine system of caucuses and convention this Spring so they could be among the two thirds of Maine Democrats who cast a vote for Sanders.”
Bright then reminded readers that after Sanders lost the nomination to Hillary Clinton, which came just after internal Democratic National Committee emails leaked by WikiLeaks confirmed that party leaders were working behind the scenes to undermine Sanders’ candidacy, those same young voters engaged by Sanders stayed home on Election Day.
“Many felt the Democratic Party had not listened to them, did not care about them, and did not respect them. Their sense of loss in July became our Party’s loss in November,” Bright wrote, adding that if the Democratic Party wants to be successful in the future, it should allow young people to lead.
To go forward, the Democratic Party needs these young voters.
More importantly, America needs these young voters.
I can’t do anything to change the results of the election this year. But perhaps by encouraging these idealistic voters to stick around, I can change the results of elections to come.
Read Bright’s Facebook post below:
Love it or hate it, here’s the statement I’ll issue after the Electoral college vote today.
Statement by Democratic…
Posted by David Bright on Monday, December 19, 2016
Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact him via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com, or friend him on Facebook.
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