Bernie Sanders and the Democrats’ Coalition of the Appalling

I’m sure you’ve had your fill of reading about Graham Platner. At this point, I wish he would go away, but he needs to take Bernie Sanders with him.

Fox News reminds us how strongly Sanders backed Platner:

The self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, who has called his far-left movement a "revolution," had been one of Platner's most vocal supporters, asserting that he would "do everything I can to make sure that Graham Platner is the next senator from the state of Maine." Sanders, true to his word, attended campaign events and advocated fiercely for Platner on social media despite a series of scandals about Platner's past.

Platner is just one of the most egregious examples of Democratic candidates whom Sanders and others in his orbit have endorsed who have courted controversy. There’s James Talarico, whose theology is even worse than his policy positions, Melat Kiros, who claimed that 9/11 was inevitable, and Rebecca Cook, who lamented the “racism that has infiltrated” her hometown.

There’s also Randy Villegas, who racked up $14 million in abuse settlements as a school board member, Bob Brooks, who insulted firefighters and allegedly defrauded his family, and Adam Hamawy, who has ties to one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing masterminds. That’s quite a list of infamous names.

And then there are the candidates who lost their primaries. Journalist Rebecca Bade lists the primary losers in the Bernie orbit:

EXHIBIT A: ILLINOIS. Sanders endorsed ROBERT PETERS in the deep-blue IL-02 primary. Peters didn’t just lose — he got blown out, finishing a distant third with just 12% of the vote as DONNA MILLER cruised to the nomination. Over in IL-08, Sanders-backed tech businessman JUNAID AHMED came closer, losing by about 3,300 votes and five points, but a loss is a loss.
EXHIBIT B: NORTH CAROLINA. Progressive favorite NIDA ALLAM — endorsed by Sanders along with Justice Democrats, Sunrise and the Working Families Party — came within a single point of knocking off Rep. VALERIE FOUSHEE in NC-04, then conceded. Close doesn’t count in this business.
EXHIBIT C, AND THE ONE PEOPLE ARE REALLY MAD ABOUT: UTAH. This is the one Democrats keep bringing up in the same breath as Platner. Sanders endorsed state Sen. NATE BLOUIN, whom he called “a fighter,” in the primary for Utah’s brand-new 1st District. Then in April, Punchbowl unearthed Blouin’s old, ugly Reddit and other online posts — jokes about filming “porn with your underage sister,” repeated slurs, a “skull f**k” threat, and posts trashing Mormons as “bigoted a**holes.” Salt Lake City’s mayor called on him to drop out. Blouin apologized, stayed in and got crushed anyway; BEN MCADAMS won with 60% to Blouin’s 24%. Sound familiar? Warning signs, ignored, followed by a wipeout. It’s Platner in miniature.
EXHIBIT D: THE BILLIONAIRE BET. Sanders may have spent a career railing against billionaires supposedly “buying” elections — but then his outside mega group Our Revolution turned around and endorsed one of them: TOM STEYER, in the California governor’s race. Steyer poured more than $215 million of his own fortune in and still finished third in the jungle primary, missing the runoff entirely before conceding and endorsing XAVIER BECERRA. Progressives still can’t quite explain that one to me.
EXHIBIT E: THE FIGHT AGENCY PROBLEM. It’s not just Sanders’ own endorsement list. Democrats are also sneering at FIGHT AGENCY — the Bernie-orbit consulting shop committed to elevating anti-establishment progressives — for some of the candidates it chose this cycle. In Iowa, the shop’s client NATHAN SAGE never even made it onto the ballot, dropping out of the Senate race over fundraising struggles before he could face voters. In the swingy, GOP-held 17th district in New York — ground zero for Dems’ effort to flip the House — its client PETER CHATZKY self-immolated after the New York Times unearthed old lewd Facebook posts — crude jokes about paying Melania Trump for sex, or sleeping with hypothetical interns.

Some Democrats aren’t happy with Bernie’s attempts to remake the Democrats into his own socialist image. Take gun-grabber Shannon Watts, for example.

A reminder that Bernie Sanders also endorsed another candidate who mocked sexual assault, failed Utah House Dem candidate Nate Blouin.

It’s almost like there’s a pattern. https://t.co/vFdHUAJFhC
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 7, 2026

"What they feel, frankly, is piping hot fury,” writes Bade. “It’s not that every Sanders or Sanders-Orbit candidate has been a disaster, but when those endorsees did implode, they did so in the ugliest possible way, leading to questions about judgment and strategy."

"I don't know why you want to keep pushing these kinds of people," Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told Fox News, referring to Sanders. “Maybe he should consider sitting a few out and stop pushing these kinds of communists."

Fetterman is right, although Sanders sitting out a few races wouldn’t solve the Democrats’ larger problem. Bernie isn’t accidentally stumbling across one toxic candidate after another. He and his allies are building a movement whose hostility toward America, capitalism, traditional Christianity, and basic standards of decency keeps producing exactly these sorts of candidates. That’s what the Democratic Party needs to deal with to avoid more disasters — although we conservatives should be eager to see the party destroy itself from within.

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