Jane Sanders: Why Bernie Voters Shouldn't Get Over It
Bernie's wife discusses her proudest and most difficult campaign moments, the DNC email leak and the future of his revolution
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Inside the DNC convention hall Tuesday, many of Sanders' delegates walked out in protest. Outside, supporters from all over the country marched and chanted. But sitting in his box inside the Wells Fargo Arena, Sanders never betrayed his frustration.
Neither did his fiercest defender, staunchest ally and closest adviser: his wife, Jane, who was by his side all week, and throughout the campaign.
After the dust settled Wednesday, Rolling Stone sat down with Jane O'Meara Sanders to discuss this roller coaster of a week — and year — and to find out where she and Bernie will go from here.
Last night during the nomination roll call, Bernie's brother, Larry, had the chance to cast his vote for Bernie on behalf of the delegation of Democrats living abroad. What was that moment like?That was emotional. It was a surprise. I knew he was going to be with the Democrats Abroad. I didn't know that they were going to ask him to cast his vote separately. Bernie and Larry lost their parents when they were young — Bernie was 19 when his mom died, and 21 when his dad died. So, you know, to be thinking how his parents would feel to see Bernie over this last year and then Larry, as a delegate, to vote for his brother for president — that was an unbelievable moment.
Bernie got a little choked up.Yeah! And that's not like him — he tends to be very serious and rational. But, I mean, you talk about your parents at a time like this, and your brother is there with you, and your whole family is with you — four kids and all the grandkids. It was pretty amazing.
That was the last real obligation Bernie had this week. How are you feeling now that most of the work is done?Relieved, a bit? Though all the work is not done. We're moving to a new chapter.
There was a period of time where we were working with the Clinton campaign to have her agree, and the Clinton delegates agree, to the most progressive platform in a number of areas, and to hammer out a health care bill that provides a public option and doubles funding for health centers, and a higher education bill that allows people making under $120,000 a year — that's 83 percent of our population — to be able to send their kids to college tuition-free at public colleges and universities.
He could have conceded long before, and people — the media — were asking every time we saw them, "When are you going to concede? When are you going to endorse?" That was difficult, because we stayed in as long as we could to use as much leverage as we could to get everything we possibly could get, including the rules committee, where we rethink how we run these elections.
He's not going to win the presidency, we've known that since June 7th [the day of the last big primaries, in California and New Jersey], but we had to do as much as we possibly could on the issues to honor all of the work that so many people have done, and that we did. So that's why I say it's a bit of a relief now — now we can move to the next chapter.
How granular did those discussions with the Clinton campaign get?Very, very, very. This is not conceptual at all. It's policy. Where is the money coming from? How are we going to do it? All of it is in stone. It's good.
What kind of assurances did you get to ensure they'll follow through on these agreements?It's funny. My daughter was speaking to somebody with a spiritual background, and he said, "Bernie lit the flame — now we'll hold their feet to the fire." And that is exactly what we need, from all the people. Bernie can do some of it, but, just like the campaign, it's not about him — it's about all of us.
Can you tell me about some of the hardest moments for you on the campaign trail?Learning what I didn't know was hard. To see people suffering unnecessarily was just unfathomable. Why? Why is this being allowed? Going to the Native American reservations: Pine Ridge, Oak Flat, where they sold the copper mine deposits to a Russian company and it was on sacred ground. Why? Hearing all of the stories of people being treated unfairly by people in power, no matter what way, whether it's in their state governments, in their local government, in the federal government. Looking at Native Americans and looking at how they don't have education equity there, they don't have good health care, they don't have economic development, they don't have housing. I'm married to someone who is all about the people. He hears about a problem, and he wants to fix it; he does everything humanly possible to do that. It's just so foreign to me. So that was the hardest part.
When were you most proud of Bernie this past year, if you can pinpoint one moment?There were so many moments where I was proud of Bernie. I probably sound silly, but that debate where he said, "I'm sick of hearing about your damn emails," he didn't think of that [ahead of time]. It wasn't a plan. He's not a politician who thinks of things and plans it all out. He just answers the questions, truthfully. I was very proud of him there because it was an easy hit, and yet all we were hearing was speculation, speculation, speculation every single day, and nobody was talking about the real issues that are affecting people's lives. He said it, and he meant it: We'll wait and see the process. I remember thinking, People are going to say that's a political mistake, but it's a principled point of view. And I don't think it was a political mistake, because people understood: This man is for real. He's a principled person.
What about you? You're one of his closest advisers — what are you, personally, the most proud of this campaign?I can't claim credit for this: My daughter told me about Oak Flat, and then we had a meeting in Arizona — a rally— and a 14-year-old girl stood up and talked about the sacred site. I went to Flagstaff around the same time, and met with the Navajo Nation, met with the Apache-Stronghold, and came back and talked to Bernie about all this and said, "We have to do something, we have to do something." And he said, "OK." And since then, we met [with Native Americans] every single time we could. We have the strongest Native American platform. It is something that Deborah [Parker, a former vice chairman of the Tulalip Tribes in Washington State, named to the platform committee by the Sanders campaign] fought for beforehand, and could get nowhere. At the main [Democratic Party platform] meeting she said, "They want me to water it down." We said, "No. You don't start at a compromise. Go in there for what you want." She went in, she wrote this magnificent piece, and started to cry in the middle of [reading it to the platform committee]. Jim Zogby, another member of our people on platform committee, read the rest of it. It passed unanimously, when they were refusing before, because people understood how heartfelt it was.
A year and a half ago, what would you have never expected?I would never have expected that he would have won the vast majority of people who voted in the Democratic primary under age 45. Blacks, Latinos, Asians, whites, it didn't matter: he won the vast majority of people under 45. I was surprised at how fast they knew him on a gut level. Vermonters know him that way. They know they can trust him implicitly. They know what he says is what he means, and that is what he does, and he come from a core of strong values. I was surprised at how quickly the nation got to know that. The last two years he's been voted the most trusted United States senator — number one. So people have been watching him, but I was surprised by that. I was surprised to see stadiums of 28,000 people. That was kind of shocking, and it's also been gratifying to watch.
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