Delegates at the Democratic National Convention today officially nominated Hillary Clinton for president,to widespread cheering. But outside the Wells Fargo Center, thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters banged on security fences, shouting “election fraud.” It’s still not clear if many of the 12 million Sanders voters will come
around to Clinton. Alaskans attending the convention in Philadelphia say what the Sanders fans do next could turn the tide of history.
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For many of the Alaska delegates, the day started with a breakfast buffet in a hotel meeting room that they shared with the Wisconsin delegation. Special guest: Sen. Bernie Sanders.
He spoke mostly about policy, and almost in passing told his supporters they should work to ensure Clinton, and not Donald Trump, wins the White House. Sanders left like a pied piper, trailing a bevy of his passionate Alaska fans. They followed Sanders down the hallway, to
his next breakfast speech for a different group of delegates.
“He’s going to Iowa. You’re not all going to get in,” one attendant said, and the Alaskans were blocked at the door.
Gavin Hudson, a Sanders delegate from Metlakatla, loved the Vermont senator’s speech to the Alaska delegation.
“It’s not just celebrity. It’s not just because he’s popular or that I like him,” Hudson said. “The best part about Bernie Sanders’ speeches is that they’re all focused on the issues.”
It was just hours before Clinton’s official nomination, but Hudson, a dedicated Sanders delegate, wasn’t giving up yet.
“I understand that it’s unlikely. I understand that the math isn’t working in our favor at this point,” he conceded. (Clinton won decisively, but got just six delegate votes from Alaska, including three superdelegates. Sanders, who won more than 80 percent of the Alaska caucuses, reaped 14 Alaska delegates.)
Don’t mistake Hudson’s frustration for rowdiness. Hudson says he was not among those who booed pro-Clinton speakers at the convention.
“I was raised better than that,” he said.
But Hudson says the loud protests are understandable. He thinks the Democratic Party stacked the deck against Sanders. But Hudson’s frustration is not so great that he’s willing to see Trump get elected.
“Will I vote for Hillary is probably the question you really want to know,” he said. “I’ll plug my nose, I’ll eat my vegetables and I’ll pull the lever for Hillary, if need be.”
Hudson is 36. Brenda Knapp, of Juneau, is a couple of decades older. She came to Philadelphia as volunteer, to help with Alaska delegation events.
Knapp wore not only a 2016 Hillary Clinton button, but her old Hillary button from 2008, the year Clinton lost the nomination to Barack Obama. Knapp says she knows the pain and anger of seeing your candidate lose, but she says Sanders supporters shouldn’t take too long to get on board with Clinton.
“You can express some dissatisfaction” Knapp said, “but don’t keep it up, you know?”
At breakfast, the speaker before Sanders, former Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, reminded the crowd of the 1968 election, and it resonated with Knapp. Back then, she and other young Democrats saw their favorite long-shot candidate from the left, Eugene McCarthy, lose to the party’s establishment candidate — Hubert Humphrey.
“What happened is that not enough of us probably got behind Hubert Humphrey, and as a consequence we had eight years of Richard Nixon,” Knapp said. “That could happen again. And this would be – Trump is much scarier than Richard Nixon.”
Knapp says she hopes today’s Sanders supporters know the story of 1968 and avoid a repeat.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
