Sanders, Omar Hold Town Hall for ‘Progressives’ in Shadow of Democrat Convention

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is a featured speaker tonight on the first day of the 2020 Democrat convention, but he will be the headliner during a virtual town hall on Tuesday along with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and even Joe Biden’s director of progressive outreach.

The town hall was announced on Facebook:

Join Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Ilhan Omar, and over a dozen powerful national progressive organizations to lay out our plan to win in November 2020. We are engaged in an independent campaign to reach millions of Black and Brown voters, young people, and progressives to defeat Donald Trump, and move a transformational agenda in 2021. Panelists will share strategies for fighting voter suppression, boosting voter enthusiasm, and building long-term political power – including how you can get involved in the fight!

Far-left groups are sponsoring the town hall, including CPD Action, Peoples Action, RootsAction, Mijente, United We Dream Action, Working Families Party, Black Voters Matter Fund, Seed The Vote, Sunrise Movement, Progressive Democrats of America, Our Revolution, and Make the Road Action.

The left-wing media outlet Slate accused Democrats of failing to include the left in the convention, including its token reward to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Sanders supporter who will get to speak for 60 seconds.

Leading Sanders surrogates Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan have already announced they plan to vote no on the DNC’s platform — which does not include either support for Medicare for All or marijuana legalization, two progressive policies that garner majority support with Democratic voters. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is the only Sanders supporter, aside from the former candidate, who gets a speaking slot this week even though about one-fourth of this year’s delegates are Sanders supporters. She only gets one minute.

That’s it. That’s the outreach. Former Ohio governor John Kasich, a Republican, will receive a bigger platform at the Democratic convention — and that just about sums up the state of the party less than three months ahead of the election. The triumphant center claims it is extending a hand to progressives and NeverTrump Republicans but is leaning hard in only one of those directions.

The Daily Beast reported only three speakers are Latino and no Muslim Americans are on the roster.

“This year’s DNC lineup doesn’t reflect the political complexities of the moment,” Slate reported.
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