March 3, 2020

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says that Bernie Supporters and Warren Supporters Must Unite

Enough with the snake emojis.

Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto/Zuma

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The supporters of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the two progressive Democratic presidential candidates, have been notoriously unfriendly to one another ever since the candidates’ icy encounter following a January debate revealed growing cracks in the former allies’ relationship. Their disagreement centered on Warren reminding Sanders of comments she says he made about a woman’s unelectability against Trump. Sanders denied the comments and, after the debate was over, Warren was caught on tape accusing Sanders of calling her a liar. Sanders supporters flooded Warren’s twitter replies with snake emojis, and Warren supporters doubled down on their rebukes of so-called “Bernie Bros.” 

The animosity has continued during the weeks preceding the Super Tuesday showdown and has shown no signs of slowing down. But with the unexpected resurgence of former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign and the coalescing of support from mainstream Democrats around him, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other progressive elected officials are urging unity among progressives ahead of the Democratic presidential nomination.

The movement started on Monday, with a tweet from a national surrogate for Sanders’ campaign.

Then New York’s state Sen. Mike Gianaris, a Sanders supporter, tweeted his solidarity with Warren supporters, adding the hashtag #BuildTogether. 

Other progressives were quick to join in. New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi chimed in from the Warren camp:

And Ocasio-Cortez took the conversation to the national stage:

 

Meanwhile, former 2020 candidates Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke all endorsed Biden at a campaign event in Texas on Monday night. As the moderate coalition for the former vice president strengthens, progressives will have new urgency to jettison the snake emojis and rally around an alternative Democrat.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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