Bernie
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January 12, 2016; The Hill, “Ballot Box”

On Monday, MoveOn.org members endorsed Bernie Sanders for President. MoveOn’s website says that with 340,665 votes cast, 79 percent of members had voted to back Sanders, as opposed to 14.6 percent for Hillary Clinton, and that the activist organization will do its best to turn out voters on his behalf in the primaries. The group has a list of 8 million members, with a roster of 75,000 in Iowa and New Hampshire and those members tend to be active in civil society.

Sanders was also reported yesterday to have a 14-point lead on Clinton in New Hampshire according to a recent poll, and a poll from Quinnipiac University showed 49 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers supporting Sanders in Iowa as compared to 44 percent for Clinton. Last month’s Quinnipiac poll had Clinton at 51 percent compared to Sanders’s 40 percent.

In 2008, of course, the group endorsed now-president Obama after he won a less impressive 70 percent of the support of its members. Earlier in this election season, the group backed the “Run, Warren, Run” campaign aimed at urging Elizabeth Warren to get in the race.

“This is a massive vote in favor of Bernie Sanders, showing that grassroots progressives across the country are excited and inspired by his message and track record of standing up to big money and corporate interests to reclaim our democracy for the American people,” said Ilya Sheyman, MoveOn Political Action’s executive director.

“We will mobilize aggressively to add our collective people power to the growing movement behind the Sanders campaign,” he added, “starting with a focus on voter turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire.”

Meanwhile, in its first-ever endorsement in a primary, Planned Parenthood Action Fund this week joined NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC in endorsing Clinton.—Ruth McCambridge