{"id":3588,"date":"2018-07-23T12:20:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T16:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3588"},"modified":"2018-07-24T09:11:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T13:11:53","slug":"selina-vickers-on-how-west-virginia-democrats-voted-for-bernie-but-ended-up-with-hillary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3588","title":{"rendered":"Selina Vickers on How West Virginia Democrats Voted for Bernie But Ended Up with Hillary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the West Virginia primary of 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-v-HRC-2016-Primary-Sheet1.pdf\">all 55 counties voted for Bernie Sanders for President.<\/a> But at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, the West Virginia delegation pledged its support to Hillary Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VeUTWvRuqBk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How did that happen?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If it were a democratic process, Bernie would have garnered 18 West Virginia delegates, Hillary 11 and West Virginia would have been in the Bernie column at the convention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, the vote at the convention went 19 votes for Hillary and 18 votes for Bernie.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3594\" src=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/bernie-2-232x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/bernie-2-232x300.jpg 232w, https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/bernie-2-768x994.jpg 768w, https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/bernie-2-791x1024.jpg 791w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were eight superdelegates &#8212; Senator Joe Manchin, then Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, Natalie Tennant, Elaine Harris, Pat Maroney, Belinda Biafore and Bill Laird.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Selina Vickers is a Democratic Party activist based in Beckley. She has been advocating for a more democratic Democratic Party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve been told that Senator Manchin whipped those eight super delegates to give Hillary the win in West Virginia,\u201d Vickers told <em>This Week in Morgan County.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was one super delegate dissenter. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But he was replaced before the vote was taken.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBack in the Spring of 2016, our vice chair of the party was Chris Regan,\u201d Vickers said. \u201cHe came out for Bernie Sanders. He has written about how Senator Manchin and Larry Puccio contacted him and demanded that he abandon that fight and vote for Hillary. He refused to do so. In June at the West Virginia state party convention, Chris was ousted and they put in somebody &#8212; William Laird &#8212; who just happened to vote for Hillary Clinton.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vickers said she heard Senator Manchin say at a meeting well before the 2016 primary that &#8212; \u201cI told Hillary that we couldn\u2019t deliver West Virginia to her in the general election, but we could deliver it to her in the primary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPeople in West Virginia were so upset,\u201d Vickers said. \u201cBernie was very popular in West Virginia, so many people worked so hard for him, and then they just Dem exited.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPeople were so frustrated that they left the party,\u201d Vickers said. \u201cIn the general election, we couldn\u2019t get out the vote for Hillary. Everybody who supported Trump came out in the general election and voted Trump. And they voted Republican right down the ballot. People were so disgusted (with the primary outcome) that they just stayed home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vickers decided not to Dem exit, but to Dem enter. And she has been going to Democratic National Committee reform meetings to make sure that what happened will never happen again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In August, the DNC will vote on a reform proposal that would for the most part prohibit superdelegates from voting on the first ballot. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the reform proposal, for example, West Virginia would have been pledged to Bernie at the 2016 convention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vickers has been travelling around the country, video streaming the DNC reform committee meetings. Hillary supporters became suspicious and accused Vickers of being a Putin puppet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere is this one DNC member from California, Bob Mulholland, very old guard,\u201d Vickers says. \u201cI had a couple of conversations with him at different events. At one point, he asked me who I voted for. And I voted for Jill Stein for President. There was no chance that Hillary could win in West Virginia. And I wanted to help the Green Party with ballot access.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMulholland was saying that this whole effort to get rid of superdelegates was a plot from Vladimir Putin to destroy the Democratic Party,\u201d Vickers said. \u201cI don\u2019t think he believes that in the least. But he copied a bunch of journalists on it. And one of those journalists is Dave Weigel with the <em>Washington Post.<\/em> He covers these meetings. And I\u2019ve talked to David Weigel many times. I\u2019ve given him this flyer many times. He knew Mulholland was talking about me. He contacted me. And I had just gotten back from their meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. Mulholland said there was no way I could be covering the expenses myself and that somebody was covering my expenses. And it was probably Putin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI had stayed at an Airbnb (in Providence). It was like $30 a night. I found a round trip plane ticket for $150. I sent my receipts to David Weigel. He contacted Bob Mulholland and said &#8212; this whole trip cost $300. And Mulholland doubled down. I don\u2019t know if Bob Mulholland thinks people in West Virginia don\u2019t have $300 to spend on a weekend trip &#8212; I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On June 12, the <em>Washington Post<\/em> ran Weigel\u2019s article titled \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/powerpost\/wp\/2018\/06\/12\/bernie-sanders-supporter-attends-every-dnc-reform-meeting-dnc-member-calls-her-a-russian-plant\/?utm_term=.e71c3dd0a39e\">Bernie Sanders Supporter Attends Every DNC Rule Change Meeting. DNC Member Calls Her a Russian Plant.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, Vickers has people from all over the world following her blog &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinavickers.com\/\">selinavickers.com<\/a> &#8212; \u00a0and supporting her reform work. She agrees both parties are corrupt, but instead of working outside the two party system, for now, she would rather fight than switch.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the West Virginia primary of 2016, all 55 counties voted for Bernie Sanders for President. But at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, the West Virginia delegation pledged its support to Hillary Clinton. How did that happen? If it were &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3588\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3588"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3601,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588\/revisions\/3601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}