This post has been a long time in the making. I’ve spent the better part of the last eight months on the fence, watching the battle lines be drawn in the Democratic primary fight. I weighed the pros and cons of the candidates running to represent the Democratic party in November, and while I’ve found all to be generally acceptable, none have been truly electrifying – or, at least, as electrifying as was a junior senator from Illinois in 2008.
To be honest, I didn’t think it would really matter whom I supported in the 2016 Democratic primary race; I believed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would sweep her way to an easy primary victory early this year. I watched as many other highly qualified candidates declined to run, leaving only Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley standing in opposition to Clinton. No matter what I thought of their progressive politics, it seemed unlikely that Sanders and O’Malley would have the resources to seriously challenge the Clinton machine.
Boy, was I wrong.
On Tuesday, Sanders accomplished the seeming impossible when he earned a near tie with Clinton in the Iowa caucus – a mere .3% of the vote separated the two candidates. For a candidate who once trailed Clinton by more than 20 points in the state, Sanders’ second-place finish proved that his candidacy is, in fact, a viable one.
More to the point, I feel Bernie Sanders is the right candidate to support in the 2016 Democratic primary.