ORLANDO, Fla.—Bernie Sanders’ crusade to shape the Democratic party platform scored a win late Friday night, with the approval of an amendment calling for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 over time.
The fight to get more explicit platform language around wages showed the Vermont senator’s campaign still fighting for the liberal issues that made up his “political revolution” even as his clout fades.
In the weeks since Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination, her primary rival won a few policy concessions and influenced the party’s platform. But he’s also angered fellow lawmakers for not promptly endorsing his primary foe and has seen his influence wane as President Barack Obama and Sen. Elizabeth Warren stepped in to unify the party behind its presumptive nominee.
Sanders is still seeking more platform concessions at the party meeting in Orlando that broke up just after 1:30 a.m. Saturday, with plans to return later in the day. But he appears to be winding down this period of denouement, with his endorsement of Clinton now expected to come at a joint event next week.
The meeting of the Democratic National Convention full Platform Committee began slowly in an Orlando hotel ballroom on Friday, but Sanders’ supporters were pleased when they approved an amendment to the platform backing raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour “over time,” indexed to inflation. The earlier draft did not explicitly call for the $15 federal minimum wage.
Sanders supporter Benjamin Jealous, a former NAACP president who serves as a member of the committee, called the amendment “a victory for the Bernie Sanders campaign and for working people across the country.”
Still, Sanders’ supporters want more changes. Many were wearing stickers stressing that they want the platform to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Clinton has come out against but Obama supports. They also want a carbon tax to address climate change and seek a freeze on hydraulic fracking.
The roughly 15,000-word platform is a nonbinding document that serves as a guidepost for the party. After the Orlando meeting, the document will be voted on at the convention in Philadelphia this month. The draft under review already shows Sanders’ influence, as it endorses steps to break up large Wall Street banks and urges an end to the death penalty.
