Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Saturday praised a draft of the Democratic Party’s 2016 platform, which reflects several of the progressive issues voiced by her primary challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Calling the platform “the most ambitious and progressive platform our party has ever seen,” Maya Harris, a Clinton policy adviser, praised the platform’s call for a repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds to pay for abortions in most circumstances, and expanding Social Security.
Most notably, Harris hails the support for people to earn at least $15 an hour — a key issue for Sanders, who has advocated for a $15 federal minimum wage while Clinton has stopped at $12 and favored state efforts to raise their minimum wages beyond that figure.
Other nods to the party’s progressive wing include an emphasis on increasing clean energy production, curbing “Wall Street greed” and hiking taxes on multi-millionaires.
The platform also calls for a review of past trade agreements — notably the Trans-Pacific Partnership pushed by President Barack Obama and formerly supported by Clinton until she came out last year against it under heavy pressure from progressives.
“Make no mistake about it: The 2016 Democratic platform represents an ambitious, progressive agenda that all Democrats can and should be proud of,” Harris said in a statement.
The Democratic Party platform, which reflects the party’s official policies, will be officially voted on at the Democratic National Convention next month. Although it will serve as the benchmark for Democratic principles in 2016, it doesn’t legally bind Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, to adhering to it.
A third of the seats on the Platform Committee were held by Sanders supporters, and the Vermont senator, who has tacitly acknowledged his campaign is finished, has made shaping the Democratic Party’s policies the last remaining goal of his candidacy.
“My job right now as a candidate is to fight to make sure that the Democratic Party not only has the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party, but that that platform is actually implemented by elected officials,” Sanders said Friday in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.”
In a statement issued late Friday night, Sanders’ campaign said although he was pleased about some of the financial regulations called for in the platform, he was “disappointed and dismayed” that Clinton allies did not adopt a tougher line against free trade. The campaign also said it was disappointed that the platform did not explicitly call for a $15 minimum wage.
“Delegates also debated a Sanders-backed proposal calling for a $15 an hour federal minimum wage,” the Sanders campaign said. “Clinton’s delegates and members appointed by the Democratic National Committee chair voted to strike down the proposed platform plank.”
Sanders has said he plans to take his campaign to the convention and has repeatedly declined to drop out or concede the race to Clinton, though on Friday, he said he would likely vote for Clinton come November.