Some of Sanders’ SC fans will ‘Bern’ until candidate calls it quits

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is cutting campaign staff as his White House hopes dim, but some S.C. Democrats backing the U.S. senator from Vermont are not willing – yet – to concede the fight for their party’s presidential nomination.

Still, S.C. Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison called Saturday for solidarity as Democrats gathered for their state convention to choose the delegates who will help pick the party’s nominee in July.

“We have to remember who and what we’re fighting for,” said Harrison, one of six S.C. superdelegates to the Philadelphia convention. Harrison pledged his support for Clinton after she won the state’s primary in a 3-to-1 rout.

As Republicans decide their nominee, “We cannot allow ourselves to be divided and allow them to win,” Harrison said.

More than 1,000 S.C. Democrats showed up Saturday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center to elect delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, mentioned in his some circles as possible vice presidential candidate, gave the keynote address. Attendees also heard from the party’s lineup of candidates for the U.S. House and Senate.

Another Clinton supporter, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, also made attempts to soothe any tensions that might be left between Clinton and Sanders supporters.

“I don’t have a thing but respect for Bernie Sanders,” said the U.S. House assistant Democratic leader, adding Sanders was his go-to senator to get support for community health care centers in the Affordable Care Act.

Calling for unity, Clyburn said, “We cannot get so upset about the results of the primary that we lose sight of what needs to happen in November.”

Sanders supporters from Columbia and elsewhere in Clyburn’s 6th District sat in a sparsely filled cluster of chairs in part of the convention center’s ballroom. Across the aisle, Clinton’s supporters packed chairs that filled an entire side of the room.

While a lineup of candidates ran to fill seven delegate positions for Clinton in the 6th District, only 10 people were vying for the single spot from the district available for a Sanders supporter. But, under Democratic Party gender equity rules, that Sanders spot had to be filled by a man, narrowing the field of candidates to four.

Three of the candidates vying to be the Sanders delegate said that if they won the spot, they likely would vote for Clinton – if Sanders dropped out of the race and released them from their obligation to vote for the U.S. senator.

However, the fourth would-be Sanders delegate was wavering.

“I understand that we all want to see a Democrat elected,” said Wayne Borders, a Columbia activist who campaigned for Sanders. “I want to support a Democrat. I want to support a woman. But I just personally don’t believe that Hillary Clinton is that candidate.

“I’m still struggling to find my passion for supporting Clinton.”

If Sanders drops out, Borders said, he would follow the candidate’s cue to “support who he would endorse.”

“That would just be a matter of just good solidarity and cohesion within his campaign structure really, more so than any kind of burning passion for (Clinton),” he said.

After the votes were counted, Hopkins resident Lawrence Moore snagged the 6th District delegate seat supporting Sanders. An active member of the party for three decades, Moore said there is “more than one solidarity” Democrats should keep in mind. There also should be solidarity in backing “our political revolution,” he said, referring to Sanders’ repeated pledge to transform the U.S. political system.

A lot of young Democrats and new people have become involved in politics as a result of the Sanders campaign, Moore said.

“We want to keep that enthusiasm. We want to keep those people on board, and the main way to do that is to champion the issues that brought them to Sen. Sanders in the first place.”

At Saturday’s convention, state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, sat in a chair placed intentionally apart from Clinton or Sanders supporters. Cobb-Hunter, a superdelegate to the national convention, said she plans to remain neutral until there is a clear nominee.

“I love the passion” the campaigns have brought to the contest, she said.

However, she added, “I strongly suggest that if Sen. Sanders plans to continue (in the race) that he ratchet down the rhetoric because what he is doing in the attacks on (former) Secretary (of State) Clinton is simply helping Republicans in November.”

The negative attacks, she said, “will make it harder to bring people together.”

To others, the tensions between the Sanders and Clinton camps do not seem so bad – especially compared to the Republican race.

It’s been “very mannered” and “well-behaved” on the Democratic side, said Sanders supporter Stephen Hait of Columbia, adding it’s time for Sanders to “switch gears.”

Asked when Sanders should wrap up his campaign, Sanders supporter Russell Wilcox of Columbia responded, “Last Tuesday,” when Sanders lost four primaries. Not long after, the Sanders campaign announced it was laying off hundreds of staffers.

Aiken Democrat Ann Willbrand said she did not seen any animosity between Clinton and Sanders supporters at Saturday’s gathering.

S.C. Democrats are “very adamant about their candidates. But I think reasonable people will come together,” she said.

“If not, they’re sour grapes.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Some of Sanders’ SC fans will ‘Bern’ until candidate calls it quits."