Dem Sen. Donnelly: ‘When You Talk Medicare for All,’ ‘You Start Losing the People in My State’

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN) stated that “when you talk Medicare for all…you start losing the people in my state.”

Donnelly said, “I got more votes in this midterm than any Democrat in Indiana in modern history. But it wasn’t quite enough. Because the president came three times in about the last week, six times in about the last month and a half, and said this is about him.”

He added, “And we have not made enough of a connection. I work like a dog, nonstop to make that connection. But that the people of my state understand that culturally, we want to make sure you succeed, that we’re going to fight to make sure that, for instance, on student loans, we’ll keep the interest rate at the same rate as a housing loan. But when you talk Medicare for all, like I heard on the panel earlier, you start losing the people in my state. When we start talking about, hey, we’re going to work together with the insurance companies to lower premiums, that’s what connects. And so, you know, the talk on the coasts just doesn’t get it done in the middle.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett