Exclusive: Bernie Sanders on How Kamala Harris Can Win

Senator Bernie Sanders has a plan for how Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz can win in November, and if you ask him, he'll tell you he has the data to support it.

While some strategists would likely advise Harris and Walz, the Democrats' presidential and vice presidential candidates, to moderate their policy views to effectively challenge GOP nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, Sanders thinks they should do precisely the opposite. The progressive independent senator from Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats and twice sought the party's presidential nomination, in 2016 and 2020, believes the data is on his side.

Polling from Data for Progress, which was commissioned by Sanders and conducted at the end of July, showed majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans in the six battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin back a range of progressive policy ideas—including raising the minimum wage, increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and significantly lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

"I hesitate to even call them progressive," Sanders told Newsweek, describing these proposals as "common sense" ideas.

Although Republicans have worked hard, with at least some success in recent years, to position themselves as the party of the working class, Sanders said this is more about Democrats' failings than any real policy solutions from the GOP.

"Many working-class people feel that the Democratic Party has kind of abandoned them," he said, explaining his hope that Harris will lead the party to reprioritize working-class voters.

"If you speak to the needs of working families and don't worry so much about the lobbyists or the wealthy campaign contributors, you're going to bring forth a message that will resonate with working-class people all across this country—whether they're Democrats, independents or Republicans," Sanders said.

With less than three months until Election Day, Sanders says he is "working as hard as anybody you know" to get Democrats elected up and down the ballot. However, he still wants to see more from Harris, with an agenda focused on working-class people. "I hope very much that in the weeks to come she and her team will understand the importance of focusing on economic issues," he said.

Newsweek spoke with Sanders via Zoom last Friday to discuss progressive policies and how Harris can win by a "decent margin" in November. The interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Newsweek: First, I wanted to ask about the recent polling that you helped spearhead in battleground states. The thing that stands out the most is that the polling shows a majority of Republicans in these states are supportive of many of the policies that you and other progressives have been pushing.

What is the disconnect when we see this? Which is not the first polling that I've seen like this, right? So what is the disconnect when these policies are not getting passed under Democrats or Republicans? And also, Republicans are still winning in a lot of these states, even though they don't generally support these policies.

Sanders: I think you've asked the $64 question, you've asked the most important question, and it speaks to the disconnect between Washington and the political class and the corporate media class and ordinary Americans. So the point that we wanted to make in the poll is that at a time when we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality, at a time when almost everybody agrees that our health care system is broken, dysfunctional and wildly expensive, at a time when we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, by far, guess what? The American people actually would like their government to do something about it.

But when you come to Washington, what you find is that you are surrounded by lobbyists representing the insurance companies, the drug companies and corporate America, and these guys make huge campaign contributions. So the discussion inside the Beltway is very different than what it is on Main Street or all over this country. And that's the point of this poll, to show that, I hesitate to even call them progressive—lowering the cost of prescription drugs so we don't pay the highest prices in the world. Is that a progressive idea, or is that a common sense idea?

When every other country on Earth guarantees health care to all people as a human right, every major country. Is expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision a radical idea? I don't think so. Is expanding Social Security to increase benefits for millions of elderly people who are struggling economically by lifting the cap on taxable income and making Social Security solvent for 75 years? Is that a radical idea? I don't think so.

So the point of this poll is Democrats, Republicans, independents—a vast majority of the American people—agree on common sense economic solutions to the crises we face.

When you're looking at the 2024 election, how should Vice President Harris and Governor Walz be incorporating these policies into their campaign? What should the messaging be to voters?

I think what the messaging should be is to acknowledge the pain that people are currently experiencing. When 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, that means you have to raise the federal minimum wage above seven and a quarter [dollars] an hour to a living wage. When people can't afford prescription drugs, you got to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

I think the message should be that if you speak to the needs of working families and don't worry so much about the lobbyists or the wealthy campaign contributors, you're going to bring forth a message that will resonate with working-class people all across this country—whether they're Democrats, independents or Republicans.

Governor Walz has a record of passing some of these policies in Minnesota, which is something that Republicans have quickly jumped on as an attack line. How do you think that attack line will resonate, particularly in the key battleground states? And how should he and Vice President Harris respond when getting attacked like that?

You know, I was on a television show the other day. What I said is, "If the Republicans and Trump want to attack Harris and Walz for cutting the cost of prescription drugs in half, which is what I think our poll says is widely popular, I'll help pay for that ad."

Can you see the ad? "Harris and Walz want to reduce prescription drug costs by 50 percent! Vote for Donald Trump!" I don't think so. And I think if the next ad is that "Harris and Walz want to increase the minimum wage in this country to a living wage. Vote for Trump." I don't think so. So Republicans want to put those ads on the air, I'll help pay for them, and I think they would be absolutely counterproductive to their interests.

Do you see Walz as a true progressive? Do you feel like his nomination was a nod to the progressive wing of the party?

Well, I don't know. I know him but not all that well.

What I do know is he comes across as a very average American coming from a rural state. And the fact that he comes from a rural state is, I think, a good thing, because Congress has for too long, ignored rural America. Number two, what I like about him, he is a former high school teacher and a football coach. You know what? That's pretty good. And number three, as a governor of Minnesota he has been very strongly pro-worker, pro-union.

He has helped to raise the minimum wage. He's helped to provide kids in Minnesota with free breakfast and lunch programs, which I think is terribly important. He has stood up for women's rights, which we have obviously got to do. So I think his record in Minnesota is a strong pro-worker record, which will resonate well with the American people.

Republicans have really tried to position themselves as the party of the working class, and they've also been somewhat successful in convincing a lot of those voters that they do represent their interests better. Why, in your view, are they having that success?

I think it is less to do with what they are proposing, which is really nothing. I mean, a couple of years ago, I tried to raise the minimum wage in the Senate to all of $15 an hour, not high enough, but that's all I can get. I didn't have one Republican, not one Republican, supporting it.

We in my committee, I'm chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, we brought forth the [Protecting the Right to Organize] Act, which is legislation that makes it easier for workers to form unions by making it harder for corporations to illegally prevent union organizing in a company. We did not get one Republican vote to support workers trying to organize unions.

In terms of taking on the pharmaceutical industry, Republicans don't do that. In terms of raising taxes on the wealthy so we can increase benefits for Social Security beneficiaries, I don't think there's any Republican who supports that.

So to answer your question, it's not Republican ideas. It is, I think, many working-class people feel that the Democratic Party has kind of abandoned them, turned their backs on them, especially in rural America but all over the country. My goal is to see the Democratic Party, once again, become the party of the working class by standing up clearly and taking on powerful special interests and fighting for specific ideas, which we've kind of outlined in the poll that represent the needs of ordinary Americans.

Some critics of Democrats, as well as some on the left, have said that the Sanders agenda kind of won in 2020, even though your campaign wasn't successful, because Biden adopted a lot of progressive policies. Do you feel that the progressive message is starting to be what Democrats are pushing forward more and more?

I think the American Rescue Plan, which we passed in the first months of the Biden administration, was enormously popular. If you look at polling, that was the legislation that provided $1,400 for a man, woman and child, extended unemployment benefits, helped out hospitals, schools, small businesses. What people saw in that legislation, strongly supported by Biden and Harris, was legislation that finally said to the American people: Look, especially in the COVID period, we see your pain, you're hurting, and you want government, your government, to represent your interest, rather than just big money interests.

I think next week the president and the vice president will be doing an event talking about the success of Medicare beginning to negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. First time in history we have done that, and that is the path that we need if we're going to lower prescription drug costs in America. Enormously popular.

I think that to the degree that [Harris] and Walz can focus on working-class issues and understanding that there are a lot of people in this country hurting, we have had good success in the last three and a half years in a number of areas. But we need to recognize the pain that's out there and bring forth an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class, and not just wealthy campaign donors. And if we do that I believe that Kamala Harris not only will be the next president, I think she can win by a decent margin.

Now, shifting a bit, with the Israel-Gaza War a lot of progressives have been quite distraught by the position that the Biden administration has taken. I know your position has been different. But what would you say to the contingent of voters who had written off Biden initially and are saying now that they're not going to vote for Harris?

Look, I don't think there's anybody in the U.S. Senate who has spoken out more against the Netanyahu regime and his extremism and the destruction that he is rendering to the people of Gaza, including creating conditions which are leading to the starvation of tens of thousands of children. The International Criminal Court, as you may know, delegated Netanyahu as a war criminal—violation of international law with regard to this war, as they did with Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar, who is the head of Hamas.

I agree on both counts. The leadership of Hamas are war criminals. What Netanyahu is doing is in violation of international law, he is a war criminal. So I share the sentiment that many millions of Americans, not just progressives, feel about the destruction of Gaza right now.

I have, as you've heard me say, agreed with many of the things that the Biden-Harris administration has done domestically: rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, investing in the transformation of our energy system to combat climate change, taking on pharma, lowering prescription drug cost, standing with workers on strikes. So they've done a lot of good stuff domestically. They're wrong on Gaza, in my view.

But what I would say to people out there: We have got to continue our efforts to turn this administration around, both the president and the vice president. The United States should not be giving another nickel to this extremist Netanyahu government in their terrible war against the Palestinian people. We gotta continue to put pressure on them. But if anybody thinks withholding a vote from Kamala Harris is going to help the situation, you're dead wrong.

Not only are the Republicans worse on this issue, they are not even prepared to provide humanitarian aid to starving children in Gaza. So a Trump administration would be far worse than what you're seeing right now. Our job is to move the Biden-Harris administration, move Harris if she becomes president. But to simply sit this one out, which, in a sense, is a vote for Trump, would be counterproductive to everything that we believe in.

Do you think that there's a substantive difference between Harris' views on this issue and Biden's?

That is a good question, and I honestly don't know the answer at this point.

I know that you've said you're working hard to get Kamala Harris elected, but I don't believe you formally endorsed her. Why is that?

What I am doing right now is working as hard as anybody you know. We were just very recently in Minnesota, where we did some really good events in Mankato and in Minneapolis to help in Minneapolis, to help Ilhan Omar. Previous to that, previous weekend, we were in the two events in New Hampshire and two events in Maine. Well-attended events. Before that, I was in Wisconsin.

So we're working as hard as we can. So the so-called formal endorsement is more of a media concern, but basically what I want to hear—and I'm going to be doing everything I can to elect Kamala Harris as president—but I hope very much that in the weeks to come she and her team will understand the importance of focusing on economic issues.

The abortion issue, enormously important. Resonates with the American people. Trump's attack against democracy, very, very important. Trump's character as a pathological liar. Very, very important. But we have also got to—climate change, enormously important. Trump believes that climate change is a hoax coming from China, totally insane. So all of those issues are enormously important.

But I think if we're going to win this election, you got to speak to the struggles of working people—as I mentioned earlier, 60 percent of whom are living paycheck to paycheck. Got to deal with a crumbling—we gotta deal with a broken health care system, high prescription drug costs. I think if we focus in on those issues, we're going to do just great.

If you had to warn Harris and Walz about potential mistakes they could make in the next few months during the campaign, what would those words of caution be for them?

I think, as I mentioned at the start of this discussion, there is a huge disconnect between the bubbles in Washington, D.C., and the corporate media campaign contributors and the mentality, consciousness, of inside the Beltway, as opposed to what goes on in the real world. And the mistake would be to start listening to consultants, to start listening to wealthy campaign contributors and temper what you want to say.

I think the American people are extremely angry about an economic system today in which three people own more wealth than the bottom half of the American people. The people on top do phenomenally while working-class people are struggling. Speak to those issues. The American people, whether you're Republican, Democrat, independent, are disgusted with a political system in which billionaires, through their super PACs, are contributing huge amounts of money to elect or defeat the candidates of their choice.

So I think you gotta—to answer your question—pay attention to where the American people are at. Don't worry so much about the corporate media. Don't worry so much about political consultants and campaign contributors.