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PHILADELPHIA – If there was a summer camp for the "vast leftist conspiracy," as Kellyanne Conway, White House advisor for Trump, dubbed it, it would be the annual Netroots conference. Nation to be held here this weekend.
And among these campers – the 3,700 activists and liberal activists – two candidates for the next Democratic presidential primary are clearly favorites: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., And Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
But only one of the two presents himself to address the faithful: Warren will be speaking Saturday at a forum of candidates. Sanders skips the conference and sends his campaign co-chair.
The Sanders campaign told organizers last week that he could not be present because of a scheduling conflict. Other applicants also looking for progressive supports, such as Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., And Cory Booker, D-N.J., Also missed the appointment.
"A movement candidate comes to Netroots and talks to people who do the work, not just to talk, but to listen to the experts," said Jennifer Epps-Addison, president and executive co-director of the Center for Popular Democracy Action. , a network of progressive local groups.
Yet, with Warren and Sanders over the group, his absence and presence seem to indicate a broader approach to the progressive movement – and, according to some, help explain why she has climbed into the latest polls while her support has remained steady .
Where Warren has long worked with leftist groups to coordinate his work in the Senate under pressure from outside, Sanders has often preferred to act on his own and build his own movement. This is an approach that he has adopted not only with the Democratic Party, but also with some of the established progressive groups who attend conferences like this and have a disproportionate voice in the main process.
"Warren has been coming here for a decade or so," said Markos Moulitsas, founder of the liberal Daily Kos blog, behind the Netroots Nation conference. "There is a long history of his engagement with the Netroots that is really paying off."
And while Warren has invested in the core tasks of personal care and nutrition policy, like sending thank-you notes and phoning allies on their birthday, Sanders tends to get lost in front of the kind of ego that often takes to build. and nurture relationships between insiders and influencers – especially if they have not always been.
Sanders has built a loyal fan base that may give him stronger support than almost any candidate on the ground, but Warren may have a higher ceiling due to his ability to bridge the gap between establishment and anti -establishment.
The last time Sanders spoke to the Netroots nation in 2015, he was repeatedly harassed by Black Lives Matter activists, along with his presidential candidate, Martin O Malley. The conference has developed a reputation for disruptions such as this one, which has kept some high-level speakers out of the way.
Moulitsas, moderator of Saturday's presidential forum, said it was a missed opportunity for Sanders to explain why he should be the one who will materialize the vision of his 2016 campaign instead of passing the torch, especially to a woman or a person of color, since "white men are now a minority in our party".
"It's remarkable to see how he has integrated progressivism into the Democratic Party, and he deserves a lot of credit for that – it does not mean he deserves the nomination for it," said Moulitsas. "Then it's a shame that he did not come … I would have liked to personally thank him for that."
He added, "But I said that to be a white person, you need some sense of arrogance and I think that's your electoral cycle."
Sanders consolidated his support for the left back when it was the obvious – and the only – progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton. Today, the movement is divided.
Sanders campaign co-chair, Nina Turner, a former Ohio State senator who attended Netroots on her behalf, said it was "insulting" to suggest that "the The most progressive and progressive candidate "should pass the torch now that his ideas are more commonplace.
"There are many copies in this race, but there is only one original," Turner said. "Here is the man who has spent all his life in the trenches.Here is the man who had the audacity to run in 2016 and take all the slings and arrows … and you do you mean that the man who stood up to the system needs to withdraw? I do not think so. "
Sanders, she said, is working every day to build the progressive movement across the country and push forward its agenda in Washington, such as having the Senate vote against the US intervention in Yemen – so that "it's a good thing". it does not have to wait once and for all – annual conference. "
The so-called Net Roots, which were born of a new era of "resistance" under President George W. Bush, barely represent the entire progressive movement of today. . And many have been behind Warren since even before Sanders runs for the first time, hoping to see her enter the 2016 race before moving on to Sanders when she stayed out.
Even here, many people claim that Sanders is the only candidate who can be trusted to realize the vision that he and Warren share widely. And some are still injured in Warren for refusing to support Sanders in 2016.
"I support most of his economic policies, but Bernie is just better – he has been consistent for so long," said Russell Cirincione, a Sanders supporter who is running a primary campaign with an outsider against the Democratic representative of New Jersey, Frank Pallone. "Bernie has set the standard, everyone is really catching up on it."
Prominent liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and Democracy for America supported Sanders in 2016, but are gaining more and more candidates and have not yet supported anyone, some actively considering many candidates, including Sanders, Warren, Harris, Booker and others. Housing Secretary, Julián Castro.
Nevertheless, many, like the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Say that they decide mainly between Sanders and Warren.
A new NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll revealed this week that Warren had taken second place with 19%, behind former VP Joe Biden at 26%, leaving Sanders in third place tied with Harris at 13%.
And Warren surpassed Sanders' much vaunted online fundraising machine in the second quarter of the year, raising $ 19 million from its $ 18 million – about the same amount it raised in the first quarter of the year – after the controversy surrounding Warren's Native American heritage beginning of his campaign.
Even so, even though groups and left-wing opinion leaders say they are in between, there are signs that there may be less overlap between Sanders' grassroots voters. and Warren that we do not generally think.
Some recent polls suggest that Warren's supporters are more likely to choose Harris as a second choice, while many Sanders supporters opted for Biden rather than Warren, despite their ideological differences, if the Vermont senator dropped out of office.
The sprawling primary primary 2020 is divided into more ideological divide lines, but also differences of gender, race and style. And polls show that Warren's support tends to be whiter, older and more educated, while Sanders's is younger and less educated.
Anyway, some leftist members feel the urgent need to unite behind a candidate as soon as possible to avoid splitting their vote and to help someone like Biden, who, according to many members leftist, lacking the ferocity and vision they deem necessary.
For example, the Working Families Party, which supported Sanders last time, is now actively considering six candidates before likely approval in late summer or early fall. Sanders and Warren conducted internal surveys of members.
"Companies have already begun to choose their candidates," said Joe Dinkin, the group's national communications director. "If the progressives do not organize quickly, Wall Street could choose the Democratic candidate for us."
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