Symone Sanders is a Democratic strategist, communications consultant, and CNN Political Commentator. During the 2016 election cycle, she served as national press secretary to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, making her the youngest press secretary in U.S. history.
Harvard Political Review: What did you learn about the country in the course of the campaign?
Symone Sanders: I learned that however dark and dismal people may feel our politics is right now—because I know people can feel like it is just ugly—I saw the depth, breadth, and amazingness of America out there on the campaign trail.
One of my favorite events that we did on the campaign trail [was when] we went to McDowell County, West Virginia, one of the poorest counties in the nation—all up in the mountains, no cell service. We were literally driving on curvy cliffs up there. We did an event at a food pantry in this town. They packed it out. One person was a local elected official who grew up in McDowell County, who said he came back because he wants to make the community better than where it is.
There were all these people who were rallying around. There was a guy that coached the local basketball team. And just the resilience of the folks in that county is indicative of the resilience of people across America. These are folks that are working two, three jobs, and still cannot make enough money to put food on the table to feed their families. Some of the [them] literally go grocery shopping at the food pantry because that is the only food they can afford. Sitting in this conversation, I was just like, “Oh, my God. Everything we are doing is absolutely worth it.” I would totally get up and do it again. I look forward to hopefully doing it in 2020 and beyond, because this is what the American people deserve.
However bleak it may look on television, or sometimes reading the newspapers, or looking on the Internet, there are folks out there across the country that really do believe in a better America. There are people out there across the country, all they want to do is make enough money to put food on the table to feed their families and do their part. I saw that on the campaign trail.
HPR: You have said that Democrats can win more going into the future. What do you mean by that?
SS: On the Democratic side of the aisle, there is a segment of folks who just want to win, who are ready to win because we are tired of losing, at all cost. Then, there is a segment of people that want you to win, but only if you are right on their issue.
HPR: What do you mean by “win?”
SS: I am talking about electing more progressive [Democrats] to office. Some people’s win is not that. If you talk to the single-payer [health care] litmus test people, a win is getting the issue of single payer out there into the mainstream. An ultimate win would be achieving single-payer. They do not necessarily care if more progressive [Democrats] are elected to office if they do not care about single-payer.
Going into 2018, looking forward to 2020, Democrats need to focus on speaking to the issue that the American people care about. The [Democratic National Committee] recently sued these Russian operatives in the Trump campaign, and one could argue that those were necessary steps they needed to take. One could also argue that the folks in McDowell County, West Virginia ain’t talking about Russia. Neither are the people in Omaha, Nebraska; neither are the folks in Ferguson, Missouri; neither are the people in Clarksdale, Mississippi; and sure ain’t the people down there in Miami, Florida.
What they are talking about is the economy, it is healthcare, it is this “tax cut” reform: tax cuts for billionaires, but why do we have temporary tax cuts for people like me? Those are the things that Democrats should be talking about and should be campaigning on. What makes people want to go to the polls is knowing that these folks who are saying, “I want to represent you,” are speaking directly to the issues that everyday, regular American people care about.
HPR: Do you see, then, there being an issue with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee or other national Democratic organizations intervening in local primaries?
SS: Absolutely. But the DCCC’s interest is in winning back the House majority for Democrats, and if I am the DCCC, I want to do everything I can to win back the House majority for Democrats. Sometimes, that entails stepping on the toes of local party committees and grassroots activists. Folks are coming to blows this cycle in more public ways than we have seen in previous years, and I think it will continue.
There has to be a happy mix. The DNC said in 2016, “We do not get involved in open primaries; we do not endorse a candidate; we just run the fair process.” It is hard for people who are newly engaged and are now going out there and volunteering for folks: they see the party jump in and step on what the people say they want. That is a morale crusher. The national party has to get folks elected [without stepping] on the work that is done locally.
HPR: Going into 2018 and future elections, how do you think politicians can connect with young people getting involved in politics for the first time?
SS: Politicians need to speak directly to young people, and young voters, like they are actually folks with brains, who do not just care about making public colleges and universities tuition-free and climate change. I am a young person. I care about making public colleges and universities tuition-free, but I also care about student-loan debt reform, because I have that. I care about climate change, but I also care about the economy. I care about the fact that when I graduated—someone paid at least $40,000 a year for me to go to school, and I graduated with a great skillset—jobs wanted to offer $28,000 or $30,000 a year in salaries. My tuition was more than that a year, and that is a reality that many young people are graduating with.
I am suggesting to every single elected official or would-be elected official that I talk to that they need to get out there and do town halls. But they need to do town halls focused on young people, and not just college students. The first time I could vote in an election, I voted for president Obama. It was my freshman year in college. The young people [who formed the Obama] coalition are now 27 to 31 years old. They are not on college campuses, but they are in fact still young people. Those folks are serving in young professional organizations, they have families, they own businesses, they are young executives: you have to find places to connect with them as well.
Folks have to remember that the millennial generation is the most diverse generation ever. When we poll millennials, when we under-sample millennials of color and over-sample white millennials, we are not getting a true snapshot of the millennial electorate. [Politicians] have to make sure [to get] a representative sample of millennials when they are doing these town halls, and [in their] polling. People need to get out there and talk to us because we clearly have thoughts, and we are not just going to show up because somebody has a “D” behind their name.
HPR: Often interest in politics is very high when someone you disagree with is in office, but later on interest falls off. What needs to happen to keep young people interested in politics?
SS: Harvard’s pollster, John [Della Volpe], said this really well a couple of weeks ago. He said, “It is easier to volunteer than it is to vote.” And that is a problem. Young people, millennials and the generation right after, are the most civically engaged generation ever. We are volunteering up the wazoo, we are organizing stuff in the community, but sometimes that has not translated into us being involved electorally, because it is in fact easier to volunteer than it is to vote. We should make it just a little bit easier to vote, a little bit easier to get involved in the political process for people who are not professional politicos.
Young people are absolutely paying attention across the board. [At Priorities USA,] we have been involved in a number of research projects. One of those research projects was a deep dive on African-American millennials. We talked to and did polling and focus groups with drop-off millennial voters—base Democratic voters who did not vote in 2016—but we also spent a substantial amount of time with unregistered African-American millennial voters. Why did we talk to unregistered African-American millennial voters? Because one, I wanted to know why they are unregistered, and two, I want to know: is there anything that would make them get registered? Are they politically involved? Because folks keep saying these young folks do not care and they are not involved, but let me ask the unregistered young people.
Overwhelmingly, the folks in the African-American millennial focus groups that we [polled] were very astute and well-versed in what is happening in politics. They were engaged and involved in their communities, but they said they were not registered to vote because they did not think their vote counted. They did not think their vote mattered, they did not think that the politicians were listening to them, and they did not understand why they would vote in a presidential election because “the electoral college does it for you anyway.” These folks are very well-informed; they just did not connect why going to the ballot box was important to their everyday lives.
Regardless of whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, I think that professional politicos need to do the work of connecting why voting is an essential part of folks’ everyday lives. People literally fought and died and bled for the right to vote in our country, so while I do not think that voting is the only answer, it is a necessary tool in the toolbox for social justice that we should all be using.
This interview has been edited and condensed.