by James A. Bacon
If a vote for Bernie Sanders is a vote for the radical restructuring of the American economy and society, yesterday’s 2020 primary elections in Virginia were highly revealing: Democratic Party voters in the Old Dominion aren’t looking for revolutionary change. For the most part, Virginia Democrats are “establishment” Democrats who embrace identity politics and limited income redistribution but not a wholesale demolition of existing institutions.
Aside from ultra-conservative Alabama, a lower percentage of Democratic Party voters — 23.1% — cast ballots for Sanders than in any other state. I don’t believe I am engaging in editorializing when I describe Sanders, who has evinced a nostalgia for far-left regimes abroad and advocated Medicare for all, free college tuition, destruction of the fossil fuel industries, massive tax increases, and the virtual expropriation of billionaire wealth, as a far-left candidate. Two of the Virginia localities where Sanders won a majority were — surprise, surprise — Charlottesville and Harrisonburg, both college towns. A third, Floyd County, is a haven for aging hippies.
As bright, pulsating, police-siren blue as Northern Virginia is electorally speaking, it is Deep State blue, not overthrow-the-established-order blue. Biden trounced Sanders by nearly three-to-one margins in Alexandria and Arlington, and two-to-one margins in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties.
Washington Post exit polls shed additional light. Sanders performed better among men (29%) than women (19%), though still worse than Biden in both sexes. He performed best among Hispanics (33%) and worst among blacks (17%). He did better among voters lacking a college degree (26%) than college graduates (20%). The one demographic category where he triumphed was among young people. Among voters aged 17 to 29, he won 55% of the vote. That compares to 7% for voters over 65. Give it another ten years, and democratic socialism might stand a chance.
Virginia voters do not appear to be clamoring for Medicare for All. Fifty-two percent of primary voters support “replacing all private health insurance with a single government plan.” Of those 33% voted for Sanders and 15% for Elizabeth Warren, who espoused the most far-reaching plans. In other words, only half the Democratic electorate, which accounts for a little more than half the total Virginia electorate, supports the idea.
Elizabeth Warren came in third, and Michael Bloomberg fourth, both with roughly 10% of the vote. It is interesting to see that while Bloomberg’s money helped Democrats win an electoral majority in state races last year, it didn’t do much for him personally.
Note: Not every voter for a Democratic Party candidate was a Democrat. According to the Post poll, 7% casting votes for Democrats are Republicans. Whether they are Republican never-Trumpers or Rush Limbaugh-style “operation chaos” voters supporting the most unelectable Democrat is unknown. Regardless, there are not enough of them to affect my analysis.
Update. Drilling a little deeper, I have found a few other pockets of Bernie support not reflected in the locality vote totals. This map comes from the Virginia Public Access Project breakdown by precinct. The inner core of Richmond went for Bernie. Those aren’t all VCU students!
It appears that there is a considerable number of Bernie bros in the far Southwest as well. (This map also was extracted from the VPAP website.)
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