Poll: Only 53% of Bernie Sanders Supporters Will Commit to Voting the Democratic Nominee

I am trying to be very calm about the situation with the Sanders supporters and the threats of them not voting. I watched the entire Michael Moore speech today and it was gut-wrenching. Moore has been my reality check for decades, and he has always been a bridge among Democratic voters.

I felt deeply Michael Moore’s fury and I respect him so much. All day yesterday I heard the commentary about Michael Moore telling people not to vote for the Democratic nominee unless Bernie is the candidate. Extreme I said to myself. They wouldn’t do that.

In prior research I determined that between 20%-25% of Berners voted for Trump, Jill Stein or didn’t vote at all. That number was only a couple points higher than the 2007 Clintonites who refused to vote for Obama, choosing instead to vote for the Republican candidate John McCain. This range of disgruntled voter disaffection is built into political campaign assumptions around voting and are in play in the 2020 November election.

Now we have very disheartening news about the Bernie Sanders supporters, and it confirms the claims about Michael Moore that I spent Tuesday trying to reject.

The National Emerson College Poll of 1,128 registered voters between January 21 and January 23 found that 53 percent of Sanders supporters said "yes" when asked if they would support the Democratic nominee even if it is not their candidate.

I was skeptical that the Berners really meant this threat of not voting for the nominee, but this poll undercuts that hunch. And the Warren supporters do respond this way. 90% say they will vote for the nominee.

The Warren folks can be lots of good pressure on the Democratic party and we are ALL pressuring in our own way.But the threats of the Bernie crowd to not vote and raise high the probability of reelecting Donald Trump as president is leaving me cold. ~ Anne