Recent Memo Reveals That Sanders Has ‘Not Ruled Out’ 2024 White House Run

According to a top aide’s campaign memo seen by The Washington Post, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has not ruled out a third bid for the White House if President Joe Biden does not run in 2024.

“In the event of an open 2024 Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Sanders has not ruled out another run for president, so we advise that you answer any questions about 2024 with that in mind,” read a message written by Faiz Shakir to political allies. Shakir is the independent senator from Vermont’s 2020 campaign manager.

According to the Post, the memo was shared on the condition of anonymity by a person with direct knowledge of its contents since it had not been disclosed publicly, and corroborated by a second person with direct knowledge of the contents.

“While it’s frustrating that this private memo leaked to the media,” Sanders spokesperson Mike Casca told the Post, “the central fact remains true, which is that Sen. Sanders is the most popular office holder in the country.”

According to a new YouGov America poll, Sanders, who is 80 years old, is the most popular politician in the United States right now, with a favorable opinion rating of 48 percent. Biden is in second place with 42 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 38%. Furthermore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are tied with 37 percent.

Sanders’ second endeavor to represent a party whose leadership has been blamed for seeing to it that a democratic socialist never become the party’s presidential nominee ended in April 2020. Sanders had declared the following month that he had only a very narrow possibility of running for president again. It was reported last month that top Sanders campaign leaders are supporting Rep. Ro Khanna to run for the presidency in 2024 if Biden does not run.

The memo goes on to state that Sanders, who has backed progressive candidates for Congress such as Nina Turner in Ohio, Jessica Cisneros in Texas, and Summer Lee in Pennsylvania, “is interested in endorsing more candidates and we’d love your help identifying potential target races” in the 2022 midterm elections.

“We do understand that corporate-backed campaigns will try to make Sen. Sanders’ endorsement controversial, especially in a Democratic primary,” the memo notes before presenting possible responses to frequently raised queries. One such frequently asked question is, “Will you support Sanders if he challenges Biden in 2024?”.

The proposed answer to it reads, “Sen. Sanders is focused on helping Joe Biden have a successful presidency. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, no one fought harder for the president’s policy agenda than Bernie. He traveled to Republican congressional districts last summer to promote Build Back Better. Unfortunately, that legislation was stopped by corporate Democrats.”

While the question of whether Sanders’ would be running for president again remains unresolved, Sanders will be traveling to New York City on Sunday to show his support for Amazon workers, some of whom have recently earned union recognition and others who are still battling for one. On the same day, he’ll go to Richmond, Virginia, to congratulate Starbucks employees who won five straight unionization votes on 19th April. 

Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Brett Wilkins.