Self-described “democratic socialist” Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders would defeat Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush by a landslide, should a general election be held today, a new McClatchy-Marist poll shows.
The independent Senator has recently gained significant support among Democrats, mounting a serious challenge to the Hillary Clinton campaign. According to the latest poll, the 74-year-old presidential hopeful leads billionaire businessman Trump by a wide margin of 12 percentage points (53 to 41), beating Republican Bush by a margin of 10 points (51 to 41).
“It is shocking that the data suggests that Sanders has a lead over Trump that could be so huge that he would win a landslide victory in the presidential campaign, with margins that would almost certainly lead Democrats to regain control of the Senate and could help Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives,” the Hill reported.
The former mayor of Salt Lake City and founder of the US Justice party, Rocky Anderson, told RT that Sanders is “a real thing.”
“He's a democratic socialist - this doesn't mean state control or ownership of property, it means government acting in the interest of the people: it means having a system in place where we don't have one of the highest rates of infant mortality - among 50 nations - the worst rate of maternal mortality, because we don't have good access to medical treatment in this country. Bernie Sanders has been fighting for this for decades, so I think that people know that he's standing up to their interests and that that word is finally getting out,” Anderson said.
On Tuesday Sanders joined protesters in Washington, DC, where low-wage workers across the country joined fast-food employees in the fight for higher pay.
"Thank you all for coming out and standing up for justice, standing up for dignity, and for saying loudly and clearly that people in this country that work 40 hours a week deserve a living wage," he said, speaking in front of the US Capitol building.
READ MORE: Bernie Sanders files Senate bill to end federal ban on marijuana
Earlier this month Sanders created a buzz when he filed a bill to decriminalize pot and nix it from the government’s list of most dangerous drugs. The proposed legislation would let all 50 states decide for themselves whether or not they want to legalize pot for recreational or medical use without federal intervention. He is the first Democratic presidential hopeful to make the controversial proposal.
Last month lawyer Cesar Vargas, a leading activist for undocumented immigrants, announced he is joining Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, with the Vermont Senator trying to reach out to the Latino community ahead of key primaries. In September, Sanders proposed a bill dubbed the ‘Justice Is Not for Sale Act’ that seeks to ban government contracts for privately-run prisons and jails within three years.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a $607-billion defense spending bill that bans moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States, with Bernie Sanders notably casting a ‘No’ vote. The legislation, which will be now sent to the president’s desk for signature, throws a wrench in Barack Obama’s 2008 key campaign promise of closing the notorious camp, located on US-occupied territory in Cuba.