Sanders Pushes Harris to Pursue Agenda That 'Speaks to the Needs of the Working Class'

As labor unions, advocacy groups, and progressive lawmakers rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders held off on formally endorsing her for the 2024 Democratic nomination, saying he wants to ensure she will pursue an ambitious agenda that prioritizes the needs of the country's working class.

In an appearance on CBS News, Sanders (I-Vt.) said he believes Harris will defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump in November if she is "prepared to campaign around an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country."

"The issue that concerns me is that for too long, Democrats have kind of turned their backs on the pain that millions of working-class people, people who are elderly, children, lower-income people are experiencing," Sanders told CBS' Robert Costa, who reported late Monday that the Vermont senator spoke with Harris on the phone after President Joe Biden exited the 2024 race and endorsed her.

Sanders, who competed against both Harris and Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary, said in Monday's interview that he wants Harris to make clear that "it is not acceptable that 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck while the billionaire class has never, ever had it so good."

"It's not acceptable," Sanders continued, "that we've got millions of seniors who can't afford dental care, hearing aids, eyeglasses, that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth, and almost all of the new wealth and income is going to the people on top."

In a separate interview Monday with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sanders said he is "sure" he will ultimately endorse Harris for the Democratic nomination but stressed that he wants to see her put forth an agenda "that speaks to the long-neglected needs of working families," specifically calling for a permanent expansion of the child tax credit and an increase in the stagnant federal minimum wage.

"I just want to make sure that her campaign understands that for too many people in this country, when they look at Washington, D.C., they feel ignored. They feel insulted that people are not understanding what is going on in their lives," said Sanders. "Life expectancy for working-class people is 10 years shorter than it is for the rich. And working-class people want a government that represents them and not corporate America."

Sanders' interviews came shortly before Harris secured the backing of enough Democratic delegates to win the party's presidential nomination, less than two days after Biden dropped out of the race. The Democratic National Committee's rules panel is set to meet Wednesday to schedule a date for a virtual roll call vote that would cement Harris' spot at the top of the party's ticket before the convention in Chicago next month.

"This election will present a clear choice between two different visions," Harris said in a statement late Monday. "Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights. I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom, and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead."

While Harris rapidly clinched the support of the Democratic establishment and congressional progressives, some have voiced concerns about her corporate ties and record as a U.S. senator and California's attorney general.

As Fortunereported Monday:

Harris has extensive ties to the tech industry—unsurprisingly for someone who was a San Francisco prosecutor as well as a California attorney general and senator. She was at the wedding of early Facebook executive Sean Parker and is close to the likes of LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, and venture capitalist John Doerr. 'We're family,' she told Google employees in 2010 when successfully campaigning for the AG role.

According toThe Washington Post, Harris recently brought in attorney Karen Dunn as an adviser. Dunn "sits at the nexus of the Democratic establishment and Big Tech," as The American Prospectput it, having represented corporate behemoths such as Google and Uber.

The Post noted Monday that "Tony West, Harris' brother-in-law who is the chief legal officer at Uber, traveled with the vice president on Monday to Delaware and has been assisting" in the shift to a presidential run.

Lee Hepner, an antitrust lawyer and senior legal counsel for the American Economic Liberties Project, wrote Monday that "it's incredibly important that Senator Sanders and others keep pushing this campaign to reflect the needs of working Americans, not corporate America."

"I'm more optimistic than not that Harris will adopt a big tent approach to her campaign," Hepner added, "but folks who think that just happens, or that others aren't pushing really hard against a coalition-based approach, are mistaken. Politics is about pressure, leverage, and influence."

Sanders wasn't among the lawmakers who urged Biden to drop out of the 2024 race. The Postobserved Tuesday morning that "as Biden bled support after his disastrous debate in late June, Sanders was able to extract a new campaign message from Biden" that "included many of Sanders' priorities, including medical debt forgiveness, expansion of Medicare for hearing and dental, and an expansion of Social Security benefits."

"He's looking for a similar commitment from Harris," the newspaper added.