Second Rally!

Today I attended my second Presidential campaign rally for Senator Bernie Sanders.
In this blog post I will be speaking about the 3 key differences between the first rally and the second, and why I believe these changes are significant.

#1 - Secret Service Protection

For those who think that the addition of Secret Service protection and a detail for the presidential candidate and current Vermont senator is not a big deal,  it goes a long way to show the current status of political affairs in the country. In July, Sanders had crowd in Arizona of over 12,000 people. He had crowds ranging from 10 - 15 thousand people throughout the country so he was by no means a "nobody" in the political arena. With that being said, there was almost no security and everyone was free to enter the Phoenix Convention Center for the July rally without much effort.

There was a stark contrast between the two rallies as I counted 34 officers patrolling just the front of the convention center with airport-esque security.  Security for Senator Sanders has escalated to levels that even Obama didn't have at this point in the election of 2008. I believe that an increase in security is a result of the direct attacks and comments made by other candidates, specifically Donald Trump. Trump told Sanders that he will send his supporters after Sanders - a microcosm for the unprecedented amount of political tension seen in American Politics today. On a positive note, it shows the passion of current supporters of both camps, as this type of political involvement is unparalleled this early in the election cycle.

#2 - Direct attacks at Sec. Clinton and Mr. Trump

During the first rally, Sanders attempted to not mention Hillary Clinton or any other candidates throughout his speech. His second rally displays the change in campaign strategy over the course of the last 8 months. He directly attacked Clinton for her lack of consistency along with her lack of cooperation to hand over her Wall-Street speech transcripts. He also devoted about 3-5 minutes of the speech to speak about why he didn't believe Donald Trump would ultimately become president. It was excellent to see Sanders finally take on the more popular figures. He can still remain civil and professional about his remarks but taking them on and expressing their flaws can help sway undecided voters in his favor.

#3 - Higher emphasis on Hispanic rights and Illegal Immigration

To be clear I understand that Latino rights and illegal immigration are two completely separate topics. However, due to the geography of Arizona (in relation to Mexico) they tend to overlap. Senator Sanders continued his support of helping undocumented immigrants and played well to the latino community in the crowd. There was a clear rise in the number of Hispanics from this rally to the last and I think that Senator Sanders came to Arizona to secure the Hispanic vote. He spoke about how deportation is a waste of time and money, and the campaign brought out a little girl who had to watch her parents be deported on TV and he later spoke about how he  believes that no child should have to go through that and no family should be put in a situation that allows that.

The 2 rallies were similar in rhetoric yet were different due to the subtle differences. I enjoyed both, but I am happy with the changes the campaign made. Thanks for reading!

Super Tuesday

After a great showing in New Hampshire and two very close races against Sec. Clinton in Nevada and Iowa Senator Bernie Sanders has struggled.

For those who don't follow the Presidential race here are the numbers from some states on Super Tuesday.

In the 13 Super Tuesday primaries/caucus's Clinton won 9 of the states including 6 states by a margin of 20 percentage points or more (including a 78-19 victory in Alabama). Sanders was able to pull out 4 victories, however Clinton has widened her gap and it would take a series of big wins by Bernie to get back to even standing.

Why?

With all this talk about support for Sanders: and with him and Sec. Clinton being fairly close in the national polls why is he losing most states? The African-American vote. Sanders is conceding the African-American vote and still expects to win. The notion that someone from the Democratic Party can win while securing only 10-20% of the Black vote is ridiculous and Sen. Sanders needs to step up in his attempt to persuade African-American voters that he is indeed the best candidate for their interests. Until the March 22nd primary I will be going to the Phoenix Bernie Sanders office frequently and supporting the campaign. Clinton currently holds a 23 point lead in Arizona. We will do our best to close that gap by visiting different neighborhoods, going door to door,  and calling voters to inform them about why Senator Sanders is indeed the correct choice.


Thanks for reading - #feelthebern

First Week

My first week with the campaign was fairly informative but was mostly limited to calling voters. In 2008, Barack Obama was able to beat Hillary Clinton because he used a popular campaigning method known as "PhoneBanking". Sanders has been utilizing the same technique as he reaches out to more and more voters and attempts to sway them. 

What is Phonebanking? Basically, as a phonebanker my job is to talk to any possible voters through the phone (as the name suggests). The voters name, phone number and other information are found through the "Virtual Phone Bank" (VPB). I simply sign in to my account and type in the group code that the campaign gives to me. Based on the campaigns priorities I will call different groups, but each group code consists of groups of individuals with similar characteristics. 

My first time phone-banking was to convince Bernie supporters (in Arizona) to become democrats. This is important because Arizona is a closed primary meaning that only voters who are registered as Democrats can vote. Although we (Volunteers for Sanders) are allowed to speak about Senator Sanders positive qualities and why we believe the voter should ultimately choose him we are not allowed to mention any other candidates and are under strict orders to say nothing negative about another candidate. 

After the win in New Hampshire there was a surge in phone banking and voter registration for Bernie around the nation, presumably because people are starting to believe that he can contend with frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The Arizona campaign office has stuck to very traditional campaign methods (calling voters and speaking to them in person), but as we approach the Arizona primary the campaign will find new ways to increase voter turnout and get a much needed win for Senator Sanders.

Thanks for reading!

Introduction!

Hi!
My name is Neel Ramesh and for the next 10 weeks I will be working with the Bernie Sanders campaign. Every week I will post about new findings/events that take place while working with his Presidential campaign. My tasks will vary: from calling voters and setting up voter registration booths to analyzing voting trends and finding new ways for people to #feelthebern. Working in a campaign office requires a lot of flexibility so the goals of my project may change over time.

My project starts on February 10th.  Check out my blog to learn more about the national campaign process!