Jane Sanders Says Bernie Would Lead a National Movement Whether or Not He Wins the Presidency

Now that Bernie Sanders has a “massive national and indeed international profile,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow asked Thursday in an interview with Jane Sanders, the candidate’s wife and senior strategist, “Do you see an organization being formed out of the Sanders-centered movement that has sprung up around his campaign?”

“Yes,” she responded. “That’s always been the intent. As he said, right from the beginning, it’s been a two-prong approach: Run for president, and the most important thing is not electing Bernie president — the most important thing is starting a political revolution. Bernie said that since the day he announced. …

“So that will have to continue. If he’s the nominee, he wants people outside working with him to effect real change. If he’s not the nominee and he’s not the president, then it becomes even more important, because we need to make sure that the agenda that about 9 million people have said — have been very excited about and a lot more couldn’t vote for yet — that that agenda moves forward.”

During Maddow’s interview with Jane Sanders, the presidential candidate himself told supporters at a rally in Eugene, Ore., that the Democratic Party had to form a 50-state strategy to recover the confidence of working voters in 25 states that Democrats long ago ceded to Republicans.

“The truth is,” Bernie Sanders said, “the Democratic Party has turned its back on many of those states. We need a 50-state strategy. We need to plant the flag of progressive politics in every state in this country. It’s great that the Democrats do well in New England and in the East Coast and West Coast states and in the Midwest … but you can’t turn your back on working people, elderly people, the children and poor people in 25 states in this country. We’ve got to fight for every one of those states.”

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.