An official at a leading progressive grassroots organization on Tuesday said that top tier Democratic hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) need to take a tougher stance against frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden in order to address electability concerns.
Green, who is a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, argued that there are still a number of progressive voters gravitating to Biden over concerns about Warren and Sanders’s electability in a general election.
“We have a lot of scared progressive voters who are electability voters who are unfortunately gravitating towards Biden or sticking with Biden who need to be told that his positions are unpopular as we’re seeing time and time again,” Green said.
He added that Sanders and Warren need to come together and “make the case that their ideas are popular and one of them would be the best foot forward.”
Green pointed to recent remarks made by Biden during a campaign stop in New Hampshire when he said he is open to considering a Republican running mate if he is the Democrat’s nominee next year, remarks that quickly drew some backlash among progressives.
“He is not our best foot forward to run for president,” Green maintained in reference to Biden.
Biden has centered much of his presidential campaign on appealing to moderate Democrats, independents and Republicans who have been alienated by President Trump. He has also regularly spoken out about the need to reach across the aisle should he win the general election in 2020.
In response to an attendee at the New Hampshire event, Biden elaborated on his answer, saying that the Republican Party hasn’t done enough to hold Trump accountable.
“You know there’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now … they’ve got to step up,” he said. He later added that there are a “plethora of qualified people” to become his running mate, including “a lot of qualified women” and “qualified African Americans.”
Recent national polling, meanwhile, shows Biden maintaining a lead atop the Democratic field.
A Morning Consult poll released last week showed the former vice president with 31 percent support followed by Sanders at 21 percent and Warren at 14 percent.
— Tess Bonn
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