Former Sanders spokesperson: Warnock win shows ‘progressive messaging’ can pressure moderate Democrats

Briahna Joy Gray, the former press secretary for the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on Wednesday said that the Rev. Raphael Warnock’s win over Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) in the Georgia runoff election demonstrates the effectiveness of “progressive messaging” adopted by the Democratic challenger.

In an appearance on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Gray explained that while progressives in Congress have been slow to “leverage power” over more moderate members of the Democratic party, wide backing from Democrats for $2,000 coronavirus stimulus checks pushed by Warnock and fellow Democratic Senate runoff challenger Jon Ossoff shows the influence progressives can monopolize on in the future.

“Warnock is in a lot of ways a repudiation of all of the narratives that we heard after Election Day… that Joe Biden was hurt by all of the talk of socialism in Florida,” the co-host of the Bad Faith podcast continued.

“The reality is, what we see is, what got Warnock across the finish line was an enormous door-knocking effort, something that Joe Biden had abandoned, the use of volunteers and organizations that were local to the state that had long-standing ties to the community and yes, progressive messaging, running explicitly on making people’s lives better,” Gray explained. 

“Let’s not forget how aided both candidates likely were with the Democrats finally embracing the $2,000 checks,” she added. “So yes, running on good things for people, works.”

As of Wednesday early afternoon, The Associated Press put Ossoff with a slight lead over incumbent Georgia GOP Sen. David Perdue with 98 percent of precincts reporting. 

Watch part of Gray’s interview above.


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