People's Action Cheers Sanders Win in Iowa

People's Action celebrated Bernie Sanders' win in the Iowa Caucuses, cheering the victory of people power over organized money.

"From the Homes Guarantee to Medicare for All to Free College for All and a People's Green New Deal, Bernie Sanders took the needs and ideas of the multiracial working class seriously--and then took up those demands as his platform," People's Action's Ryan Greenwood said. "Bernie engaged with people-powered organizations like ours in a way that no other candidate did, and in Iowa he reaped the benefits."

People's Action endorsed Sanders after a year-and-a-half-long democratic process among its 1.3 million members nationwide. The organization's process included the largest independent people's presidential forum held in Iowa, lauded by The Nation as "2020's Most In-Depth, People-Powered Forum." Its member groups Iowa CCI Action Fund and Iowa Student Action represent the largest people's group and the largest student group in the state, respectively.

Bernie Sanders won both rounds of popular votes in the Iowa caucuses, meaning most people voted for Sanders, and Sanders and Buttigieg will get the same number of delegates to the DNC. The state delegate equivalent metric being used by Buttigieg to tout a paper-thin lead over Sanders is the least important metric in the Iowa caucuses.

Because he won the popular vote (including 43 percent support from immigrants and people of color) Sanders is best positioned to win the subsequent primaries. WIth Elizabeth Warren's third-place showing and 60 percent of caucusgoers supporting Medicare for All, it's clear our ideas are winning.

People's Action, Iowa CCI Action Fund, and Iowa Student Action have been at the center of the action throughout the campaign, creating crucial moments that helped differentiate candidates from one another. Iowa Student Action member Greg Chung was responsible for the now-famous birddogging of Pete Buttigieg, in which the former mayor was asked if getting big money out of politics included not taking donations from billionaires and closed-door fundraisers. Buttigieg answered "no," and the resulting video clip received 3.2 million views on Twitter and forced more transparency from Buttigieg's campaign.

"The differences in the campaigns really became clear here in Iowa," Adiel Pollydore, national leader of Student Action, said. "Senator Sanders ran a movement politics campaign that listened to people, not donors. We were disappointed to see Biden and Buttigieg double-down on lies about Medicare for All, parroting their donors' corporate talking points instead of listening to the grassroots. The corporate Democrats' performance on health care, climate change, student debt, and housing affordability was deeply disappointing.

Greenwood added: "Bernie is running for president to make our lives better. That's why he's going to beat the candidates backed by big money. That's why he won in Iowa. That's why he's going to beat Trump. Our members from New Hampshire to Los Angeles will be going door-to-door tomorrow to ask people to join us because by electing Bernie, we elect all of us."