by Kylie Handler, editor
Critics suggest the Democratic National Committee has been desperately seeking out a way to block Senator Bernie Sanders from running for the 2020 presidential elections — and they just may have found a way.
According to Fox News, the DNC has adopted a new rule that limits anyone from competing for the Democrat nomination unless they “run and serve” as a Democrat.
Unfortunately for Sanders, an independent, that means he will be barred from running for the Democratic nomination for president.
The sudden move by the DNC to block anyone who does not declare their party affiliation from running under their party has been widely ridiculed by Sanders supporters.
@DNC #RBC just changed the rules to ensure to run for President as a Democrat you need to be A Democrat pic.twitter.com/RyHhV0Exhr
— Randi Weingarten 🇺🇦🇺🇸💪🏿👩🎓🟣 (@rweingarten) June 8, 2018
Critics of the new rule have suggested that the DNC has adopted the new rule out of “spite” because Sanders gave former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a run for her money during the 2016 Democratic primaries.
Sanders who describes himself as a democratic socialist, lost the primary spot to Hillary after superdelegates from the states he won chose not to vote for him.
“You had superdelegates voting for Hillary Clinton in states that I won pretty handsomely,” Sanders told Post this week. “And now there is agreement among [DNC Chairman] Tom Perez and our people, and a lot of the Clinton people, to say we should reduce the number of superdelegates.”
Perez began floating the idea of eliminating superdelegates in early June.
Many Sanders supporters are puzzled as to why a losing party would want to become inclusive. They suffered a major blow when Hillary lost the presidential election, and blocking Sanders could be a bad decision.
“We just came off a devastating presidential loss in 2016,” Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Sanders’ 2016 campaign, told Yahoo News. “It would seem to me the actual impetus would be to expand the Democratic Party. I, just for the life of me, don’t see any motivation for this beyond personal spite.”
“At the time a presidential candidate announces their candidacy publicly, they must publicly affirm that they are a Democrat,” the printout says. “Each candidate must then affirm in writing that they: A. are a member of the Democratic Party; B. will accept the Democratic nomination; C. will run and serve as a member of the Democratic Party.”
According to Fox News, Sanders may be protected from the new rule thanks to a resolution passed in his home state. To Rhode Island he is considered a Democrat, “for all purposes and [is] entitled to all the rights and privileges that come with such membership at the state and federal level,” Politico reported.
–Kylie Handler is a news editor for The Horn News