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The National District Attorneys Association is the main professional body for American prosecutors, and like the Fraternal Order of Police, it is retrograde when it comes to justice. The organization has fear-mongered about youth use of marijuana skyrocketing in states that have legalized the substance, while pushing for heightened federal crackdowns. The NDAA also aggressively fought a White House report that sharply criticized the use of bogus forensic evidence in criminal courts.

In short, the NDAA is not a particularly meritorious organization, and amplifies entrenched ways of law enforcement thinking. One of its vehicles for doing so is its magazine, aptly titled The Prosecutor. Generally speaking, to read it, one must be a member of the organization, and membership is only open to those working in the prosecution field, as well as individuals seeking justice for communities and working on behalf of victims.

But thanks to someone posting it online, the general public gets to see Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, one of the most conservative top prosecutors under the Democratic Party banner, prop herself up as a progressive.

In a new 16-page article, Rundle explains her approach, which she dubs Miami-Style Smart Justice. In the written equivalent of a side-eye, Rundle writes, While more and more district attorneys have begun to experiment with what some call progressive solutions, strategic remedial measures that reduce crime, improve lives, and save money are a matter of tradition in Miami-Dade County.

That is certainly one way to put it.

The average person wont know the history of Rundles tenure, but its well worth exploring as an illustration of the glaring gap between a quasi-reformist prosecutors rhetoric and the realities on the ground. (And while this is about Rundle, it could just as easily be about the district attorneys of places like Brooklyn, Manhattan, and other liberal urban jurisdictions not impacted by the Soros-funded wave of progressive DAs.)

State Attorney Rundle. Photo via Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office.

In her article, Rundle sets herself aside from what she deems the Traditional Approach of US criminal justice: essentially, lock em all up. That may be truer now than it was in the past. Prison admissions have indeed gone down in Miami-Dade County over the years, thanks in part due to changes Rundle has made In FY 2000-2001, Miami-Dade County accounted for 9.1 percent of the states annual prison admissions, but by FY 2015-2016, it accounted for only 6.8 percentbeaten out by both Hillsborough and Broward Counties. Perhaps a change of heart came sometime after 2007, when Rundle still bragged on her government website about ratcheting up the harshness of punishments, using the same criminal code that she herself helped draft.

Rundle has also consulted with some criminal justice reform groups on ways to enact incrementalist reforms in recent years. The Justice Collaborative, the successor organization to a Harvard project that excoriated Rundles record on the death penalty in 2016, helped her create a modernized bail policy, by which people facing some nonviolent misdemeanor chargesincluding prostitution and driving with license suspended for failure to pay or appearare recommended for release from pretrial jailing without payment. The extent of impact is unclear, though Rundle has started taking donations from the bail bonds industry this campaign cycle.

It is also worth acknowledging that whatever good came out of the new bail policy would likely be negated by a new $393 million megajail the mayor and county commission are looking to build. Reflecting her comfort with mass incarceration, Rundle has not expressed her opposition to the plan. In contrast, Rundles 2020 challenger, Melba Pearson, has.

Like other quasi-progressives, Rundle implemented many reforms that broadened the criminal justice systems iron grip on vulnerable, non-dangerous peoples lives. Rundle is a major supporter of the countys drug court, which was the first in the nation. While drug courts are better than prosecutors simply trying to send all people who use drugs into jails and prisons, they are only marginally so. Compliance is highly difficult. The courts criminalize relapse, even though returning to drug use is part of many peoples path to recovery from addiction.

In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, more people died of overdose in 2017 alone than succeeded in the drug court from 2008 to 2018.

Actually treating drug use as a public health issue means removing the matter from the criminal justice system entirely, so health professionals, and not lawyers and judges, can make the right diagnostic calls. Rundle does not get this, or she chooses not to get it, privileging a rigid and simplistic criminological analysis over the ethical practice of medicine.

Rundle conflates drug and alcohol use with crime by mistaking correlation with causation.

In her article, Rundle justifies her approach by pointing to recidivism statistics68 percent of released prisoners are rearrested at least once within the first three years after release, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Rundle then conflates drug and alcohol use with crime by mistaking correlation with causation, remarking that one study found that over 84% of state prisoners were alcohol or drug involved whatever that means. This is a widely believed point of view amongst American law enforcement, but not one that a supposedly progressive prosecutor should parrot.

Rundle cannot honestly rest her hat on her fidelity to victims rights, either. Twelve years into her tenure as State Attorney, Rundles office had no specialized sex crimes unit. Rundle still does not seem to have one today, though she has one for domestic violence. For decades, Rundle had done next to nothing to mitigate the non-testing of over 10,000 rape kits. She waited for other governmental actors to push the issue, unlike some of her peers in other big, liberal cities.

Rundle also virtually never prosecutes police shootings of unarmed civilians. Having worked on many prosecutor campaigns across the country, I can say that this decision often has most to do with political cowardice. The police, the hardest law enforcement sector to change, explode at DAs who charge errant cops, and channel their anger into political retaliation. Regardless of personal motives that might include self-preservation, prosecutors like Rundle nuke the criminal justice systems legitimacy every time they fail to charge an appropriate case. That is doubly true in communities of color, where people are much more likely to be killed by cops.

From a human rights standpoint, earlier parts of Rundles tenure were nothing short of heinous. Rundle charged kids as young as 13 as adults; one of her long-term deputies once seriously considered a murder charge against a 5-year-old. From 2006 to 2015, Miami-Dade County had handed down 13 juvenile life sentences without paroletwo more than Harris County, Texas (Houston), despite Harris County having almost double Miami-Dades population.

Rundles administration also obtained more death sentences from 2010 to 2015 than 99 percent of district attorneys across the country, with some tossed out for deliberate, purposeless prosecutorial misconduct. Her own assistant prosecutor, Abraham Laeser, broke national records by obtaining over 30 death sentences himself (many of which were sought after he got caught unzipping his fly in front of a defense attorney and a female jury consultant).

Today, Rundle holds the state of Florida back on big policy debates. As the longest-serving registered Democrat in the highly influential Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, she has major sway over how other Florida state attorneys perceive bold reforms (like no longer seeking the death penalty) from progressive prosecutors like Orlando State Attorney Aramis Ayala. Instead of sticking up for Ayala, Rundle chose to denounce Ayala along with the rest of the State Attorneys. Elsewhere, Rundle has defended ugly practices like Floridas direct-filing of kids to adult court via prosecutorial whim, which helps make her state the nations cruelest on juvenile justice.

Rundle claims to be ahead of the curve on treating people with mental illness with dignity in the criminal justice system.

This is not to say that Rundle does not still make awful calls in her main role as prosecutor. Darren Raineys death immediately comes to mind. Rainey was a middle-aged Black man suffering from schizophrenia, serving two years in a Miami prison for cocaine possession. When three guards threw him into a scalding hot shower, his skin sloughed off and he was effectively boiled alive. To Rundle, this constituted no crime, and she refused to charge them.

In her NDAA article, Rundle claims to be ahead of the curve on treating people with mental illness with dignity in the criminal justice system. But her handling of Raineys case led to Rundles political party calling for her resignation. And after Rundle traveled to New York City to be on a mental health-focused panel at John Jay Colleges national Smart on Crime conference, Ed Chung at the Center of American Progress personally apologized for Rundles attendance on Twitter.

Her poor discretion is not limited to one standout case. In 2015, Rundle sought a charge with a three-year mandatory prison sentence for marijuana. This was not a giant retailer of the plant, either. The defendant, a Black Hispanic man named Ricardo Varona who grew 15 marijuana plants in his home, argued that he did so to help his cancer-stricken wife with pain.

The ACLU of Florida recently reported on the extreme racial bias found in Rundles administration of justice.

Varonas race matters because the ACLU of Florida recently reported on the extreme racial bias found in Rundles administration of justice. Black neighborhoods in her area face higher arrest rates. The charges at arrest, which police set in Florida, are harsher for Black people, who also face the most drug charges. But the inequality is not limited to the cops. Rundles office gets to decide whether to change the charge set by police.

Ultimately, the ACLU unveiled that Black Hispanic defendants are convicted at a rate that is over five and half times higher than their share of the county population. In addition, Black Hispanic defendants serve jail or prison sentences at a rate over six times greater than their share of the county population, and Black people who do not identify as Hispanic get the harshest sentences in Miami-Dade on average.

Katherine Fernandez Rundle neglects to address the egregious ways she stands on an island all her own compared with prosecutors in other big, liberal cities. The fact that some criminal justice reform organizations cooperate with her in a limited capacity is not a signal that she is progressive, but more a recognition that cooperation is for the greater good of a jurisdiction with approximately three million residents.

Given Rundles electoral popularity, it is a shame that Miami-Dade may not soon see the sweeping change a true progressive prosecutor candidate, like Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, can bring.

On the bright side, Miamis elected prosecutor turns 70 this year, meaning that a change in guard in the somewhat-near future is inevitable. Time is running out for Rundle to demonstrate that her self-rebranding exercise in The Prosecutor contains the merest shred of truth.

Top photo by Michael Draeger via Pixabay.

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Miami-Style Smart Justice Is an Ugly Parody of Progressive - Filter

These clashes and internal debates are beginning to set the course of the post-Sanders left and could be key to whether the young, demoralized progressives remain engaged or withdraw.

Even the left-wings highest profile win this year was less of a triumph than the left has spun it as. Marie Newman, who had a Sanders-esque platform supporting the Green New Deal and Medicare for All defeated Illinois Rep. Dan Lipinski in March. While many left-wing groups backed her, her victory was also attributed to support from more mainstream liberal groups like EMILYs List and Planned Parenthood and several presidential candidates.

Perhaps more concerning for the left, her base of support more closely resembled Joe Bidens than Bernie Sanders hopes for a working-class coalition. Newman focused on suburban women, while Lipinskis base was made of more traditional Democrats...very much more non-college, older, sort of the traditional white ethnic vote of Chicago, according to Donna Victoria, Newmans pollster.

Some progressives compare the recent defeats to Barry Goldwaters drubbing in 1964 a temporary setback but a harbinger for what became the Reagan Revolution. They argued that the rise of the left will continue as young Democrats who overwhelmingly voted for Sanders become an increasing share of the party.

I do believe progressives are in the ascendancy in the Democratic Party and we are still in the midst of that transition, said Faiz Shakir, Sanders campaign manager, who described the recent losses as growing pains. He pointed to Biden and other Democrats who have embraced progressive policies far to the left of where the party was a decade ago as evidence of the left's expanding influence.

But others see a need to significantly revamp the lefts approach after its failure to make significant inroads with older black voters. Some former Sanders aides believe that portraying the party itself as an enemy alienated some black voters who strongly identify as Democrats.

We tried very, very hard in a lot of different ways to make the appeal to older African-American voters, Shakir said, adding that growing support for Medicare for All among black voters in states they lost offers reason for hope.

"A majority of Democratic primary voters agree with us on the issues but see the main conflict in American politics as being between the red team and the blue team, said Claire Sandberg, Sanders' former national organizing director. I think weve seen that leading with an anti-establishment message can be counterproductive because it allows the establishment to paint us as divisive and disloyal, which hurts us with the high propensity older voters we need to do better with to win Democratic primaries."

Others expressed concern that the partys further expansion into the suburbs is a sign that the class-focused politics of the left represent the past, rather than the future, of the party.

On one matter, they all agreed: They are desperate for a win. Many are scouring the remaining congressional primaries and state legislature races for opportunities. Sanders himself endorsed three statehouse candidates last week two primary challengers in Michigan and Pennsylvania and one progressive in a contested race for an open seat in Missouri.

One of those candidates said that the left needs to realize it cant win on its own and suggested Newman's victory could be a blueprint.

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You can't run an exclusive [left] campaign because there isn't the infrastructure and that's just not how society is structured, said Nikil Saval, who is challenging a Pennsylvania state senator this year and whom Sanders endorsed this week. Saval, a former editor of the literary magazine n+1, added: And you don't really want to the point is not just for the left to win, you want to build a hegemonic bloc of people that is diverse and can govern with you when you become an elected official."

Some progressives are cheering on Kara Eastman in Nebraska. She lost a Nebraska congressional race in 2018, but ran again and won the Democratic primary last week; in November, she'll square off against Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) in a rematch.

Others are looking to Samelys Lopez, who is running in a crowded primary for a Bronx congressional seat and is endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez. The climate-focused Sunrise Movement, Justice Democrats, and some aides from Sanders and Warrens campaigns have zeroed in on Bronx principal Jamaal Bowmans primary challenge against powerful Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) on June 23.

It is the right moment for some hand-wringing I think progressive activists were really hungry for a Bernie victory, so there wasnt necessarily a plan for what happened after, said Julia Barnes, Sanders national field director in 2016 and a progressive political consultant. We need to recalibrate the timeline for what victory looks like. ... Did we have a setback? Is there a need for a bigger analysis of what a progressive base could look like? Yes, but I havent lost faith yet.

Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.

The rest is here:
Progressives thought they'd overtaken the Democratic Party. Now they're in despair. - POLITICO

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut is one of the progressive Democrats pushing to expand some of the safety net programs created since the coronavirus pandemic. AP hide caption

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut is one of the progressive Democrats pushing to expand some of the safety net programs created since the coronavirus pandemic.

Democrats said the $3 trillion coronavirus aid bill that was approved last week in the House of Representatives is meant to meet the needs of everyday Americans. Republicans dismissed that same bill as a partisan attempt to enact a longstanding wish list of Democratic policy priorities.

Progressive Democrats don't exactly dispute that.

"Over 80% of the bill we have already passed in one way, shape or form," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters last week. "So, now we're putting our offer on the table. We're open to negotiation."

The bill that passed the House on Friday is full of proposals Democrats on the left have been pitching for years from a more generous allowance for food stamps to changes in the way people qualify for federal benefits. Many progressives see the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus and the public health response as proof that more expansive social policies are needed now, and in the future, to help people survive in times of crisis.

"The coronavirus pandemic has exposed gaping holes in our social safety net and has brought into stark relief issues that we knew were there," said Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the House Democratic Caucus vice chair. "Now we can see their devastating impacts so clearly."

Among the policies Clark supported in the House bill is a provision to provide funding for child care providers. She said women have always borne the brunt of the effects when schools and day care centers are closed. The issue is playing out on an enormous scale with the coronavirus. Clark and other Democrats proposed $50 billion in immediate child care funding. They also advocated for another $50 billion to fund long-term structural change.

Republicans, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., call that logic gross politics.

"Democrats cannot stop salivating, salivating over the possibilities for partisan gain," McConnell said last week on the Senate floor. "Eighty-thousand Americans have died. More than 20 million have lost their jobs. I call that a crisis. They call it leverage."

Progressive Democrats said they are simply advocating for programs that are gaining public support in the crisis.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said until the coronavirus hit, Republicans generally didn't support any expansion of domestic spending intended to help people in a crisis. Now there is a crisis, and Democrats want to use this moment to remake the system.

"These folks have never wanted to go down this road and protect what was a social safety net that we've had in the past and a new social safety net for people in today's world," DeLauro said in an interview. "I've been fighting for these issues for a very, very long time, OK. I'm trying to deal with the pandemic."

Democrats have a running list of policies they said are helping now during the coronavirus crisis and could be used to support people during any future economic dip.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said he wants to tie the expanded benefits that passed in the CARES Act to the unemployment rate going forward. Such a proposal would allow the benefits to ebb and flow to meet the economy.

Wyden said the existing system hasn't worked for a long time. Many states provide benefits below the minimum wage, and the system does not regularly support people who are paid contractors or work in the so-called gig economy.

"The unemployment system, which was invented in the 1930s, is still in kind of a time warp," Wyden said. "Nobody ever heard of a gig worker back in the 1930s."

Many progressives see the coronavirus response as a chance to prove that policies they support can work and should be made permanent.

Some of these benefits, such as extra unemployment assistance, already got big bipartisan support and will be harder to take away later.

Not all Democrats necessarily agree.

Moderates, such as Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., are not eager to use the coronavirus to advocate for long-term spending increases. Murphy, who is a co-chair of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, said any policies need to be reevaluated over time.

"I agree that in a crisis, you really highlight the deficiencies in our society," Murphy said in an interview. "But I also believe that the best approach to legislating in a divided Congress is to do what is possible and that means it has to be able to make it through a divided Congress and signed by a Republican president. Only things that become law can actually help the people that we're trying to assist."

Several moderate Democrats, including Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., voted against the $3 trillion House bill over similar concerns.

"Unfortunately, many members of Congress including some in my own party have decided to use this package as an opportunity to make political statements and propose a bill that goes far beyond pandemic relief and has no chance at becoming law," Spanberger said in a statement.

"We must come together to build a targeted, timely relief package that avoids partisan posturing and instead prioritizes combating our nationwide public health emergency, addressing catastrophic unemployment rates, and protecting the security of the next generation."

Murphy said there are clear bipartisan options out there. She pointed to funding for state and local governments that can bring the two parties together and a proposal to extend and expand a tax credit for businesses that keep employees on the payroll during the crisis.

Those bipartisan proposals may succeed in the near-term, but progressives are also looking to see how their policies can be sustained well into the future. Democrats are hoping to take control of the Senate and the White House in November, which would make it easier to build on temporary programs and permanently remake the system.

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Progressives Are Pushing Their Policies During The Pandemic - NPR

The long-awaited joint policy task forces, agreed to as a condition of Bernie Sanderss endorsement of Joe Biden, were at last appointed last week. But how will this process actually work and what difference will it make?

The good news: There are some terrific Bernie people on the task forces, and some of the Biden appointees are impressive as well. For instance, three senior trade unionists, all progressive, are servingMary Kay Henry, president of SEIU; Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT; and AFSCME President Lee Saunders. And all three are appointees of Biden.

The not-so-good news is that the Biden staffer coordinating the task force process is Carmel Martin, who served as an assistant secretary of education under Arne Duncan, one of Obamas worst appointees. Duncan was a big proponent of teach to the test, charter schools, and closing failing schools.

Charters and public-school bashing are an obsession for hedge fund Democrats, many of whom are big financial backers of Biden. The 2016 Democratic platform called for an expansion of charters.

Martin is now a senior official at the Center for American Progress, a liberalish think tank close to the Clintons that is one big degree more centrist than where the Biden campaign needs to be. CAP is the Biden campaigns default setting.

More from Robert Kuttner

My reporting suggests that the task forces will meet about weekly and produce policy papers. Since Biden is the candidate, and each task force has a majority of Biden appointees, he will have the final say. Yet he will be under a lot of pressure to move in Sanderss direction. Several of his recent policy proposals have already done so.

Some emblematic issues will include student debt and free public higher education, Medicare for All, and expansive climate and public-investment efforts.

Biden has already come out for partial relief for college debt, as well as free public higher education for students with family incomes below $125,000. Sanders and Elizabeth Warren had much more expansive proposals on both.

On the health insurance front, Bidens rather weak proposal to reduce the Medicare eligibility age to 60, and add other subsidies, stops well short of even an incremental path to true universal single-payer coverage. This will also be an area of contention, with several superb advocates of single-payer on the health task force, including Mary Kay Henry; Pramila Jayapal, co-author of the House Medicare for All bill; Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former Michigan candidate for governor; and Dr. Don Berwick, former Obama head of Medicare and Medicaid, who emerged as a born-again single-payer advocate when he ran for governor of Massachusetts.

On climate, the co-chair of the joint task force is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her version of a Green New Deal goes far beyond what Biden has proposed. Yet the fact that these people are even meeting together is a good sign.

The task force on economic policy includes two people on Bidens own economic working group, Jared Bernstein and Ben Harris. It prudently excludes another senior Biden economic adviser, Larry Summers, whose role the campaign is trying to downplay.

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Then it adds three Sanders designees: Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants; Darrick Hamilton, an expert on economic and racial inequality; and Stephanie Kelton, a leading author of Modern Monetary Theory, which holds that government should borrow and spend as much as it needs to. That doctrine, which was dismissed as fringe not long ago, has become not only mainstream but conventional.

Today, its hard to see much difference in the views of Kelton and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin or Fed Chair Jerome Powell, except of course on where we should be spending. Indeed, events have moved even to the left of Bernie, who has been strict in insisting that all of his new spending be offset by pay-fors, mainly taxes on the rich. Now large deficits are not only OK but de rigueur. Meanwhile, as the economic task force meets, so does Bidens daily call with his own, partly overlapping senior economic team.

The task force process is one of several influencing Bidens campaign and prospective presidency. Another factor is Elizabeth Warren, who is her own source of influence on public debate generally and on Biden personally. Several of the best policy proposals are Warrens.

The task forces are a welcome addition. They will help push Biden in a more progressive direction and will help keep the Bernie base on board.

Events are unmistakably pushing Biden to be a far more progressive candidate (and one hopes president) than he would have been without the Warren and Sanders campaigns and without the economic collapse produced by the pandemic.

But what will become of these task force proposals? My sources say that their destination is the Democratic platform. The platform is likely to be well to the left of its 2016 counterpart. The question is how much that matters.

Bottom line: The task forces are a welcome addition. They will help push Biden in a more progressive direction and will help keep the Bernie base on board. At the end of the day, however, they will be one of several tributaries into the turbulent river that is the Biden campaign. Even more than in most campaigns, ultimately what will matter most is personnel.

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Bidens New Pressure From Progressives - The American Prospect

A new poll from USA TODAY and Suffolk University shows that nearly a quarter of Bernie Sanders supporters haven't turned over to support Joe Biden. USA TODAY

WASHINGTON For Ean Tafoya, the political revolution is far from over.

That doesn't mean he won't vote for Joe Biden.

"I'll knock doors in a Bernie (Sanders)shirtfor (Biden), to show people thatour movement is still here, but that we believe in moving beyond this last four years," Tafoya said.

Tafoya, 34, a climate activist from Denver, supported both of Sanders' presidential runs. He said it was "heartbreaking" when Sanders dropped out of the race in early April; he received numerous calls from his friends, crying.

Although Tafoya said progressives who supported Sanders still need time to grieve and heal,he recognizes it would be far easier to pass their policies under a Democratic administration than a Republican one.

"Ultimately, it seems like we can get more progress through the initiatives that we ...care about through Biden than Trump," Tafoya said.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is going to need young voters, many who identify as "progressive" and had supported Sanders' campaign, to win the 2020 presidential election. Though young voters made up roughly 27% of voters in 2016, they are seen as essential for campaigns and are often relied on for the critical grassroots work of knocking on doors and activating voters.

More: Joe Biden vowed to pick a woman VP. Some Democrats say she must be a woman of color

The Biden campaign announced working groups focused on several issues of particular importance to progressive voters, one of which will be chaired by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Biden, who has been endorsed by Sanders,also has rolled out policy initiatives aimed at wooing progressive voters,including expanding government-funded health insurance through Medicare to people 60 and older and a debt forgiveness plan focused on students in low- and middle-income households.

Biden will haveto balance courting progressives with maintaining hisappealto moderate voters in swing states, many of whom abandoned Hillary Clinton in 2016 but might not want to vote for Donald Trump again. The former vice president built much of his primary campaign around appealing to a broad swath of voters.

"Americans aren't looking for revolution," Biden told the "TODAY" show in late February, days before the South Carolina primary victory thatrevived his campaign."They're looking for progress. They're looking for, 'Tell me how you're going to help me with my health care. Tell me you'll make me safer.' "

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) greets supporters after a campaign rally at the Charleston Area Convention Center on Feb. 26, 2020 in North Charleston, South Carolina.(Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images)

Though Biden is making inroads with top progressives groups, several leaders noted they still want to know more aboutBiden's plans forincorporating their values into his agenda.

"We think it is important thatif Vice President Biden wants to win the youth vote, he has to move on the issues, so that when young people are looking at candidates and looking at the different differences between the candidates on the issue, that they can get more excited that they see candidates that are actually championing what they care for," saidSarah Audelo, executive director of Alliance for Youth Action.

Since Sanders dropped out of the Democratic race, progressive groups and the Biden campaign have createda dialogue. Last week's announcement on the working groups was in part the fruit of that labor.

In the days after Sanders left the race, the Sunrise Movement, which focuses on climate change, along with six other groups focused on issues such as gun control, immigration and foreign policyurged Biden in an open letterto adopt a litany of stances.

They asked Biden to commit to a$10 trillion Green New Deal stimulus package, legalization of marijuana, implementing a "wealthtax" and a plan to reduce gun deaths by50% in ten years.Audelo said the issues the groups laid out are all important policies for young progressives and that Biden moving on these issues could create excitement for those voters.

More: Bernie Sanders supporters reluctantly turn to Joe Biden, fueled by their dislike of President Trump

"It is incumbent on the Biden campaign to hear the expertise that folks have and really follow their guidance in terms of policy change," Audelo said of the working groups. "So that way, a lot of folkscan be seen as surrogates hopefully for the campaign. They are the validators that the campaign really needs."

Sarah Audelo, executive director of Alliance for Youth Action , is pictured.(Photo: Sarah Audelo)

After the letter was sent, Biden and Sanders worked to create the policy working groups that would address several issues that are particularly important to young progressives. The groups will be focused on the economy, education, criminal justice, immigration and climate change.

The working groups include allies of both Biden and Sanders.

Reps. Ocasio-Cortez andPramila Jayapal of Washington, who have both said they are voting for Biden butpreviously endorsed Sanders,are each co-chairs of a group. (Jayapal also is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.) Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executivedirector of the Sunrise Movement,Maggie Thompson, formerexecutive director of Generation Progress, andMarisa Franco, director of the Latinx group Mijente, are among the participants.

The policy groups will meet before the Democratic National Convention in August to make recommendationsfor the Democratic National Committee platform and to Biden.

The coalition of progressive groups who had previously written the letter to Bidencalled the appointments a "major win for youth organizations that are building political power for young people across the country."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she wants to hear Democratic hopeful Joe Biden speak in detail on how to provide health care for everyone. Thecoronavirus pandemic, which has ravaged her district, makes health care for all urgent, she said. (April 13) AP Domestic

"We hope the Biden team will continue to listen to and consult with youth leaders and our demands as it advances its campaign, and makes actual appointments to its transition team and Administration," the coalition said in a statement this week. "We need to see continued commitments from them and the DNC to promote the solutions that galvanize our generation and give us hope in the political process. Today, we are one step closer."

More: AOC and other Bernie Sanders allies are helping shape policy for Joe Biden. Here's who else is helping

Matt Hill, deputy national press secretary for the Biden campaign, said in a statement,"Progressive voters are a key part of our growing coalition to defeat Trump and enact bold change that will tackle the most pressing issues Americans face right now, including rebuilding our economy after the crisis, expanding health care, making college affordable, and more."

The Biden campaign is still coordinating with groups such as the Sunrise Movement, March for Our Lives and United We Dream, beyond the policy working groups. On Biden's campaign, senior adviser Symone Sanders, who served on Sanders' 2016 campaign, along with senior adviser Cristbal Alex and policy directorStef Feldman have spearheaded engagement with outside groups.

The campaign is focusing on engaging two types of progressives organizations:Traditional groups such as Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign,and new-wave groups, such as the Sunrise Movement and March for Our Lives, that attract younger and more diverse voters.

The Biden campaign was endorsed by the Progressive Turnout Project, which says it will theinvest $52.5 million to knock on more than 10.5 million doorsin 17 presidential and Senate battleground states this year.

Ben Wessel, director of NextGen America, said Biden's updatedplans to expand Medicare and forgive some student debtis helpful to get progressives on board with his campaign.

"That's a real show of empathy to our young people that they feel like they're not getting from their leaders, where everyone feels like they're being strung out to dry," Wessel said. "So having someone say that they've got your back on this, even if it's small, I think is a good thing."

Biden has been criticized by some on the left over his vote for the Iraq War and for his previous stance supporting theHyde Amendment, a long-standing law thatblocksfederalfunding for abortion in most cases. Biden last summer said he no longer supports the amendment.

A recent USA TODAY/Suffolk poll showed that thevast majority of Sanders supporters(77%) said they will vote for Biden in the general election. Butnearly 1 in 4 Sanders supporters (22%) said they would vote for a third-party candidate, vote for President Donald Trump, not vote in Novemberor were undecided about who to vote for, according to the poll.

Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said Biden could have a hard time getting enthusiastic support from former Sanderssupporters because of his lengthy record three decades of Senate votes and two terms in the White House as President Barack Obama's vice president.

Reeher said it's "not gonna rub a lot of these Bernie Sanders supportersparticularly in the right way," with how Biden hasportrayed his own record.

"That's a tougher argument he's making because there's a record there that's sometimes at odds with that narrative of him," Reeher said.

Presidential candidate Joe Biden said in an interview with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC that people who believe Tara Reade "shouldn't vote for me." USA TODAY

The allegation from Tara Reade that she was sexually assaulted by Biden while working for his Senate office has also brought additional scrutiny from voters. Biden has emphatically denied the allegation, saying it "never happened."

Almost half 45% of voters between the ages of 18 and 34 believe Reade's allegationis true, according to a Monmouth University poll published last week.

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Several progressive leaders have said that they appreciate Biden not attacking Reade's character, but there is also concernthat there needs to be accountability.

"Right now we're kind of stuck in a he-said, she-said situation," said Evan Weber, political director for Sunrise Movement. "We really don't have a system that isdesigned to deal with these claims and deliver real justice for survivors and center their feeling in the process."

But Ben Wessel, executive director of NextGen America, noted that ina focus group conducted several weeks ago by his organization's youth mobilization arm, voters said the allegationdidn't disqualify Biden, and they wanted to see him address it. Since then, Biden has addressed the allegationin interviews.

"We've seen Biden do what I don't think too many of our young progressives would expect ... a typical politician to do, which is he went on TV, directedhis comments to the American people, and was really honest and open about it," Wessel said. "I actually think that's what voters want to see, that's what our people want to hear. They don't want someone to sweep things under the rug."

One leader in the coalition of groups that sent Biden the letter last month did expresssome dissatisfaction in not being contacted individually by the campaign.

Emily Mayer, political director for IfNotNow Movement, said the organizationis disappointed there is not a working group focused on foreign policy and the group was not contacted by the campaign.

The IfNotNow Movement endorsed Sanders in the 2020 election, and Mayer said the organization and Sanders' campaign were in "very frequent conversation."

"We've seen what a disaster Trump has been for American foreign policy," Murray said. "I would hope that Joe Bidenand the people around him are going to put forward a progressive vision for how to not only restore the place America has in the world but actually to make American foreign policy the sort of just instrument it should be."

The Biden campaign said while there isnt a foreign policy task force, they havebeen in touch with progressive foreign policy groups throughout the primary and continues to engage with them. They declined to identify the groups.

Aaron Walker, 26, of Chicago, Illinois is pictured.(Photo: Aaron Walker)

Aaron Walker, 26, said right now, he doesn't think he is going to vote for Biden in November. Walker lives in Chicago andnoted Illinois "has virtually no chance of going to Trump." He said he's going to focus on supporting "local leftists and oust any centrist Democrats being challenged by them."

Walker, who previously supportedSanders, noted that the movement is more than just the man.

"I love and respect the man, but the American left isnt a cult of personality," Walker said. "Bernie isnt the hero, the ideas are and if hes done fighting, were definitely not."

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Biden and Sanders have come toan agreement to have Sanders supporters represented at the Democratic National Convention, according to a memo released by the two campaigns. All delegates would be reallocated to Biden, per DNC rules. But the two campaigns have agreed that the delegate slots Sanders had earned will be filled with Sanders supporters.

While Senator Sanders is no longer actively seeking the nomination, the Biden campaign feels strongly that it is in the best interest of the party and the effort to defeat Donald Trump in November to come to an agreement regarding these issues that will ensure representation of Sanders supporters and delegate candidates, both on the floor and in committees, the memo states.

Biden has also tried to reach out to younger,more left-leaning voters through platforms and news organizations that cater to that bloc. This month,he gave an exclusive address about his economic platform on NowThis News, a progressive news site that is social media-focused. A recent interview with Yahoo was broadcast on TikTok.

Many progressive groups acknowledged Biden's outreach is a positive step forward, as well as some of his policy changes.Leaders of thegroups noted there are many who say they will still vote for Biden, but that right now, that is the extent of support they are willing to give.

"Young people are really what make up the backbone ... and energy in Democratic campaigns, Weber said.

What I'm hearing from a lot of my peers is yeah, some people aren't excited to vote but most of them are planning to vote. But people who might normally be knocking doors or making calls or things like that, Im not hearing a lot of enthusiasm for that for Joe Biden at the moment.

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The former vice president will soon begin the process of selecting a running mate as the Democratic primary nears its end. USA TODAY

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How Joe Biden is working to win over progressive voters - USA TODAY