Rep. Summer Lee endorses Sanders
Insisting that the only way to bring real change to marginalized communities is by building a “movement” on the ground, state Rep. Summer Lee is endorsing Bernie Sanders for president.
Ms. Lee, whose own success in grass-roots organizing led to her ousting a longtime incumbent from the legislature two years ago, said she’s backing the independent Vermont senator for the Democratic nomination because he will bring people into the electorate who may have never engaged with the system before.
Only then can a president usher in systemic change on issues of racial, environmental and economic justice, Ms. Lee said.
“At the end of the day, that’s actually what we’re going to need if we’re really going to implement these changes,” Ms. Lee said.
Ms. Lee, 32, of Swissvale, said she sees many similarities between her campaign in 2018, which overcame the longtime incumbency of Democrat Paul Costa, and Mr. Sanders’ bid for the presidency — most notably, that they have both found themselves facing the “machine politics” of the old guard.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is neck-and-neck with Mr. Sanders for the nomination, is part of that machine, Ms. Lee said. He represents a “yearning” for a time that wasn’t inclusive and rooted in the status quo and maintains that the system isn’t fundamentally broken, she added.
“We’re saying the system is what needs indicted right now, and we need to do that in a way that doesn’t just say we’re just trying to tear down something for the sake of tearing down something,” Ms. Lee said. “We’re trying to build up something that’s even better — something that is even more inclusive.”
Ms. Lee, who represents the 34th Legislative District centered in the Mon Valley, said she doesn’t worry about Mr. Sanders’ electability. Everyone wants a quality education for their children, and nobody wants to go into medical debt if they get sick, she said.
“They may argue on how they’ll get there, but at the end of the day, people want these things,” Ms. Lee said. “These are unifying policy pieces. They’re unifying messages that we just have to deliver.”