Amid growing popularity, Bernie Sanders has faced challenges from both the Republican and Democratic political parties. The Democratic National Committee has shown an obvious bias towards Hillary Clinton that has frustrated many people. Though his political campaign started out small, these controversies are only making Sanders’ campaign grow.
On Friday, Sanders’ campaign was accused of using a software error to find out confidential information about Clinton’s team. The DNC responded by immediately stopping the Sanders’ campaign’s access to their voting database, even though it was not proven that Sanders had done anything wrong. The loss of the database could have been a critical blow to Sanders.The voting database helps candidates to organize door to door canvassing and phone calls to all of the Democratic supporters in all fifty states of America. Without the database, Sanders was in trouble.
However, Sanders supporters immediately rushed to his aid. Many people felt that the DNC overreacted because they wished to destroy his campaign for good. To show their solidarity, donors pledged extra and encouraged others to donate. At a time when his campaign could have been struggling, they instead managed to raise an extra $1 million dollars on Friday.
Jeff Weaver, the manager of the Sanders’ campaign announced that they were suing the DNC. The Sanders’ campaign threatened to sue the DNC for $600,000 for each day that their access to the voting database was withheld. By the end of Friday, the DNC realized that they could stand to lose quite a lot of money, so they returned the database to the Sanders’ campaign. Instead of ending up with a destroyed campaign, the Sanders’ campaign ended up having an extremely successful week. They received endorsements from a huge union, the Communications Workers of America, and a popular group, Democracy For America.
The voting database controversy ended up encouraging donors to give $2.4 million to the Sanders’ campaign over the course of only 72 hours. Tonight, Sanders will be debating Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley on ABC at 8 PM. It is unknown if the debate will include any mention of this controversy.