The Working Families Party endorsed Elizabeth Warren for president on Monday — delivering both a victory for the Massachusetts senator and blow to her liberal rival, Bernie Sanders.
“Senator Warren strikes fear into the hearts of the robber barons who rigged the system, and offers hope to millions of working people who have been shut out of our democracy and economy,” Maurice Mitchell, the national party director, said in a statement.
“Our job now,” Mitchell added, “is to help Senator Warren build the mass movement that will make her transformational plans a reality.”
The endorsement is bad news for Sanders, a democratic socialist who presents himself as a voice for the working class. Last month, he won a rare union endorsement from the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. Sanders’ national political director, Analilia Mejia, was formerly the executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance.
Warren trounced Sanders in a vote of Working Family Party members, garnering 61 percent of the vote compared to Sanders’ 36 percent. Half of the participants in the vote were party leaders, the other half were members who registered their choice online. Some Sanders supporters were rankled that the party declined to release the individual tallies.
“The WFP has a storied history fighting for working people in New York and beyond,” said Bhaskar Sunkara, a Sanders supporter and former vice president of the Democratic Socialists of America. “That’s the pedigree of Sanders, too. It’s a shame they didn’t endorse the candidate that best embodies their mission.”
Sanders in 2015 won the first-ever presidential endorsement of the Working Families Party, a labor-aligned third party with deep roots to his home town of New York.
The Working Families Party was instrumental in Bill de Blasio’s 2013 victory for New York mayor. But de Blasio, now running for president, did not come within striking distance of landing the group's 2020 endorsement, despite members of his campaign staff having ties to the party.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine