Campaign

New Sanders ad featuring Obama starts airing in next batch of primary states

by Marty Johnson and Kaelan Deese - 03/04/20 12:39 PM ET

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) campaign on Wednesday rolled out a new television ad in the next batch of primary states, seeking to tie the senator closely to former President Obama.

Sanders’s campaign released the ad amid a tightening two-way race with former Vice President Joe Biden, who won a majority of state contests on Super Tuesday and surpassed Sanders in the overall delegate count to become the party’s presidential front-runner.

Entitled “Feel the Bern” — a campaign slogan that has been used by Sanders supporters since the 2016 election cycle — the ad uses a clip from the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which Obama praised Sanders’s track record as a politician.

“Bernie is somebody who has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes. Great authenticity, great passion and is fearless,” Obama says in the clip.

The video shows moments with Sanders and Obama standing and walking together, as well as highlighting achievements from the senator throughout his career.

“Bernie served on the Veterans Committee and got bills done. I think people are ready for a call to action,” Obama says in the video. “They want honest leadership who cares about them. They want somebody who’s gonna fight for them. And they will find it in Bernie. That’s right: Feel the Bern!”

The ad marks the first Obama-focused ad for the Sanders campaign, targeted at voters in states holding primary contests March 10 and March 17, such as Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington.

Andrew Bates, the rapid response director for the Biden campaign, responded to new ad, saying, “Barack Obama chose Vice President Biden to be his partner over 8 years in the White House, entrusting him with managing the stimulus that saved our economy from a depression, obtaining the deciding vote for the Affordable Care Act and countless national security priorities.”

“By contrast, Senator Sanders explored a primary challenge to President Obama, who he compared to a ‘moderate Republican’ and said was not a ‘progressive,'” Bates said in a statement. “As recent history has proven, no quantity of ads can rewrite history — and there’s no substitute for genuinely having the back of the best president of our lifetimes.”

The Sanders ad comes after Biden had great success in the South on Super Tuesday, winning Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

The video is also part of a broader media ad buy for the campaign, including a separate spot that criticizes Biden. The former vice president rolled out his own video in January, featuring Obama praising his achievements.

Obama has not endorsed any candidate for president and has remained neutral throughout the Democratic primary.

Updated at 2:37 p.m.

Tags Barack Obama Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders Democratic National Convention Joe Biden Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign