![]() |
Bernie Bro (sometimes spelled Berniebro), collectively Bernie Bros, [1] is a term coined in 2015 by Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic as a pejorative to describe young male supporters of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the 2016 United States presidential election. The term remained in use for the 2020 United States presidential election.
Robinson Meyer, a writer for The Atlantic , coined the term Bernie bro in an October 17, 2015 article to describe young, white, progressive men who, in his view, support unrealistic progressive policies and promote the Bernie Sanders campaign obnoxiously. According to Meyer, Bernie Bros belong to the middle class, are "aware of NPR podcasts and jangly bearded bands", and voted for Barack Obama in the 2012 United States presidential election. [2] [3] [4] [5]
In February 2016, Sanders distanced himself from the group as a result of alleged sexist attacks against rival Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. On CNN's State of the Union program, Jake Tapper asked whether he had heard "about this phenomenon, Bernie Bros, who support you and sometimes attack in very sexist ways". [6] Sanders replied "I have heard about it. It's disgusting...Anybody who is supporting me and who is doing sexist things, we don't want them. I don't want them. That is not what this campaign is about." [7] [8]
In an interview with Thom Hartmann, state Senator Nina Turner (a campaign surrogate for Senator Bernie Sanders) criticized the use of the term: "I just think it is really hyped by the Clinton campaign. I mean, both candidates have people who really, really support them and sometimes in ways that are not nice. But it's the same thing, if people want to research this, it's the same thing that the Clinton campaign did to President, then Senator, Obama. I think they were called 'Obama Boys.' So it's really the same stuff recycled that there are a group of men out there that are rabid and they're sexist and they're really against Secretary Clinton." [9] Max van Dyke made a similar point in 2017. [10]
During the ninth 2020 Democratic debate, Sanders suggested that Russians were impersonating people claiming to be his supporters online. [11] A Twitter spokesperson rejected this suggestion, telling CNBC: "Using technology and human review in concert, we proactively monitor Twitter to identify attempts at platform manipulation and mitigate them. As is standard, if we have reasonable evidence of state-backed information operations, we’ll disclose them following our thorough investigation to our public archive — the largest of its kind in the industry." [12]
Zeeshan Aleem, a Columnist at MSNBC, argued in August 2021 that the "myth of the white Bernie Bro has quietly vanished". This was because the recent electoral success of a diverse group of Progressives effectively buried the idea of a white and male leftwing movement. Most notably, the Congressional group The Squad, several of whose members claim the same mantle of Democratic socialism that Sanders popularized in his campaigns, and which represents the most leftwing bloc in the House, "is composed entirely by people of color and effectively led by women". Even "prominent friends of the squad", like Congressional Progressive Caucus leader Pramila Jayapal, and the freshman representative Mondaire Jones, "hail from diverse backgrounds." [13]
According to Vice News, in September 2019, women under 45 comprised a larger share of Sanders' supporters than men of the same age group. [14] After the 2020 Nevada caucus, The Washington Post stated that he was "forcing a sudden reckoning in the Democratic party" because of his strong support from Hispanic and Latino voters. [15] [16]
In January 2016, The Intercept journalist Glenn Greenwald called the Bernie Bro narrative a "cheap campaign tactic" and a "journalistic disgrace" and indicated that more women supported Sanders than Clinton: "one has to be willing to belittle the views and erase the existence of a huge number of American women to wield this 'Bernie Bro' smear." He also asserted a lack of evidence for the concept. He summarized his opinion as follows: "The goal is to inherently delegitimize all critics of Hillary Clinton by accusing them of, or at least associating them with, sexism, thus distracting attention away from Clinton's policy views, funding, and political history and directing it toward the online behavior of anonymous, random, isolated people on the internet claiming to be Sanders supporters." [17]
Nathan Wellman asserted in US Uncut in January 2016 that users of the term "are essentially erasing the contributions of women and people of color to the Bernie Sanders campaign to propagate their own narrative, rendering them as invisible people. This is one of the oldest forms of violence perpetrated by white people of privilege." [18]
Bernard Sanders is an American politician and activist who is the senior United States senator from Vermont. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history but has a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, coming second in both campaigns. He is often seen as a leader of the U.S. progressive movement.
In American politics, a superdelegate is a delegate to a presidential nominating convention who is seated automatically.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then junior United States senator from New York, was announced on her website on January 20, 2007. Hillary Clinton was previously the First Lady of the United States and First Lady of Arkansas prior to her election as U.S. Senator from New York. She is also the wife of former President Bill Clinton. Clinton was the source of much media speculation since having expressed interest in being a candidate in the 2008 presidential election since at least October 2002.
The Nevada presidential caucuses are an electoral event in which citizens met in precinct caucuses to elect delegates to the corresponding county conventions. In 2021, Harry Reid passed legislation (AB321) to include primaries in hopes of increasing voter turn-out. Nevada has for decades and still does have a caucus. The caucus is where the delegates receive the votes that will be carried to the National Convention and not the primaries. There are 17 counties in Nevada and the state has 26 delegates. The Nevada caucuses began in 1981. The Kerry/Dean caucus was held on February 14, 2004. In 2008 the DNC gave Nevada the official first in the west status reflecting the growing importance of the West as well as Nevada's electoral bellwether status. The 2008 Nevada caucuses were the third major electoral event in the nominating process for President of the United States. In 2016, the Democratic caucus was held on February 20 and the Republican caucus was held on February 23.
"People United Means Action" was a political action committee in the United States that opposed the Democratic Party leadership and the nomination of Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate for President in the 2008 presidential election. PUMA began as an effort by supporters of Obama's primary rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who believed that Clinton should have been the Democratic nominee. According to PUMA, "We [were] protesting the 2008 Presidential election because we refuse to support a nominee who was selected by the leadership rather than elected by the voters."
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majority of them elected through a preceding series of primaries and caucuses, to nominate a candidate for president and vice president in the 2016 United States presidential election. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was chosen as the party's nominee for president by a 54% majority of delegates present at the convention roll call securing it over primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders, who received 46% of votes from delegates, and becoming the first female candidate to be formally nominated for president by a major political party in the United States. Her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, was confirmed by delegates as the party's nominee for vice president by acclamation.
Hillary Clinton is an American politician from the state of New York who was the Democratic Party's 2016 nominee for president of the United States. Clinton is the first woman in U.S. history to be nominated for president of the United States by a major political party. She was defeated in the 2016 general election by Republican Donald Trump.
Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women is a 2010 non-fiction book written by the American journalist Rebecca Traister and published by Free Press. The book focuses on women's contributions to and experiences of the 2008 United States presidential election. Traister places particular focus on four main political figures—Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, and Elizabeth Edwards—as well as women in the media, including the journalists Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow, and the comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who portrayed Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live, respectively. Traister also describes her personal experience of the electoral campaign and her shift from supporting John Edwards to Hillary Clinton.
In the 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sought the Democratic Party's nomination in a field of six major candidates and was the runner up with 46% of the pledged delegates behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who won the contest with 54%. Sanders, the junior United States senator and former Representative from Vermont, began with an informal announcement on April 30, 2015, and a formal announcement that he planned to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States on May 26, 2015, in Burlington, Vermont. Sanders had been considered a potential candidate for president since at least September 2014. Though he had previously run as an independent, he routinely caucused with the Democratic Party, as many of his views align with Democrats. Running as a Democrat made it easier to participate in debates and get his name on state ballots.
A total of ten debates occurred among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2016 presidential election.
The 2016 United States presidential election in Nevada was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Nevada voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her running mate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. Nevada has six votes in the Electoral College.
College Students for Bernie (CSFB) was a grassroots organization dedicated to increase young voter participation, enhance progressive politics, and support Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential bid. At the organization's peak during the 2016 United States presidential election, there were over 200 chapters in universities across the United States.
Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash is a Facebook group where members previously shared and discussed Internet memes relating to American politician and United States senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. Sanders was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This page is still active on Facebook with over 273,000 followers as of 2023.
The 2016 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary took place on February 27 in the U.S. state of South Carolina, marking the Democratic Party's fourth nominating contest in their series of presidential primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The 2016 Massachusetts Democratic presidential primary took place on March 1 in the U.S. state of Massachusetts as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The 2016 Ohio Democratic presidential primary took place on March 15 in the U.S. state of Ohio as one of the Democratic Party's primaries prior to the 2016 presidential election.
The 2016 West Virginia Democratic presidential primary was held on May 10 in the U.S. state of West Virginia as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The People for Bernie Sanders is a grassroots movement that arose to support the candidacy of Bernie Sanders during the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign. People for Bernie, independent from the official campaign and largely organized via social media, grew to over 1 million followers on Facebook. Founded by Occupy Wall Street participants, People for Bernie Sanders became a major organizing force for progressive figures during the 2016 presidential campaign, responsible for coining the hashtag #feelthebern. People for Bernie is closely linked to other progressive groups like National Nurses United and Democratic Socialists of America.
The media coverage of Bernie Sanders, a U.S. Senator from Vermont, became a subject of discussion during his unsuccessful 2016 and 2020 presidential runs. His campaigns, some independent observers, as well as some media sources have said that the mainstream media in the United States is biased against Sanders. Others say that coverage is unbiased or biased in his favor. The allegations of bias primarily concern the coverage of his presidential campaigns.