Sanders Campaign Vindicated as Debbie Wasserman Schultz Resigns as DNC Chair
A Wikileaks trove of anti-Sanders e-mails was the last straw.
Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the embattled chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, who most recently faced the embarrassing release of e-mails where her subordinates openly talked about undermining Bernie Sanders' campaign, will step down after the Democratic Convention ends.
The resignation broke as thousands of convention delegates, including 1,900 who backed Sanders, are converging on Philadelphia and on Saturday won concessions to change the way delegates are awarded in future Democratic presidential campaigns.
Taken together, her resignation, the pledge to substantially cut back the number of super delegates—party leaders who can back any presidential candidate, and DNC commitment to revise the way state caucuses award presidential delegates, show that the Sanders campaign has altered the Democratic Party’s status quo.
Wasserman Schultz faced growing pressure to resign in the aftermath of WikiLeaks' release of thousands of embarrassing email exchanges among top Democratic officials. In one, the communication’s director openly plotted ways to hurt Sanders—such as pondering whether openly questioning his religion would undermine him in Southern states.
Sanders had called on Wasserman Schultz to resign following the latest disclosures, but his complaints about DNC go back months. Campaign manager Jeff Weaver openly clashed with the DNC last fall after it shut down access to their voter file database, which it was using to raise millions of small donations and contact supporters.
When Weaver protested that Wasserman Schultz and other DNC officials were “throwing shade” on their campaign, many in official Washington accused the Sanders team of overreacting. However, Wikileaks showed that the anti-Sanders bias was real and that Wasserman Schultz did not intervene to correct her subordinates.
As a result, Wasserman Schultz had become a poster child for Democratic Party insider bias. Progressives across the country were coalescing behind her 2016 primary opponent, Tom Canova, who has raised more than $1 million for an upcoming August primary.
The resignation broke as thousands of convention delegates, including 1,900 who backed Sanders, are converging on Philadelphia and on Saturday won concessions to change the way delegates are awarded in future Democratic presidential campaigns.
Taken together, her resignation, the pledge to substantially cut back the number of super delegates—party leaders who can back any presidential candidate, and DNC commitment to revise the way state caucuses award presidential delegates, show that the Sanders campaign has altered the Democratic Party’s status quo.
Wasserman Schultz faced growing pressure to resign in the aftermath of WikiLeaks' release of thousands of embarrassing email exchanges among top Democratic officials. In one, the communication’s director openly plotted ways to hurt Sanders—such as pondering whether openly questioning his religion would undermine him in Southern states.
Sanders had called on Wasserman Schultz to resign following the latest disclosures, but his complaints about DNC go back months. Campaign manager Jeff Weaver openly clashed with the DNC last fall after it shut down access to their voter file database, which it was using to raise millions of small donations and contact supporters.
When Weaver protested that Wasserman Schultz and other DNC officials were “throwing shade” on their campaign, many in official Washington accused the Sanders team of overreacting. However, Wikileaks showed that the anti-Sanders bias was real and that Wasserman Schultz did not intervene to correct her subordinates.
As a result, Wasserman Schultz had become a poster child for Democratic Party insider bias. Progressives across the country were coalescing behind her 2016 primary opponent, Tom Canova, who has raised more than $1 million for an upcoming August primary.
As part of her resignation, Wasserman Schultz will also not be speaking from the main podium in Philadelphia.
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