As Bernie Sanders ran out winner at the New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday, his brother Larry Sanders held an event encouraging Americans living abroad to vote for the Democratic frontrunner in the Democrats Abroad Global Primary.
The event took place as Democrats voted Bernie top of the popular vote in the New England state. Larry was keen to talk up the significance of Bernie’s success so far in the primary campaign, “Bernard’s candidacy is a moment in history that represents a fundamental shift in American politics.”
“The movement behind him is unparalleled in modern political history and I hope that Americans living overseas take this opportunity to make their voices heard and vote in the Democrats Abroad Global Primary.”
The Primary itself will begin on Tuesday 3rd March, known colloquially in the U.S as ‘Super Tuesday’, as 14 states go to the polls.
It will run for a week, until Tuesday 10th March. Larry spoke alongside Oxford city councillor Hosnieh DjafariMarbin and the Labour Party’s national Green Deal campaign founder Aliya Yule.
He himself was a city councillor for the Green Party in Oxford for 8 years, and ran as the Green Party candidate in Oxford East in 2018.
He is also the Green Party health and social care spokesperson. Not straying from his typically environmental focus, Larry went on to speak about the Green New Deal and the ecological focus of the 2020 election.
As well as Sanders decrying Big Oil, stating “the oil and gas people have known for decades what they’ve been doing to the world”, his accompanying speakers stressed the severity of the situation.
Yule noted that even the GND served the profit agendas of fossil fuel companies, and did not address the nearing “10 year” deadline to stop ecological breakdown.
Whilst he has settled in the UK for decades, he has been speaking out in favour of his brother’s candidacy in the past few weeks, attending campaign events across the UK and Europe.
Currently, he has attended or is planning to attend events in London, Paris, Oxford, Edinburgh and St Andrews.
Larry has also attracted media attention in recent weeks, partly for his criticism of Hillary Clinton in the wake of a recent documentary in which her criticism of his brother gathered media attention.
He told The Independent this week, “I think Mrs Clinton had started with a good heart, started with principles and sold them out for political power. And she’s angry and bitter at somebody who stuck by his principles.”
