(In These Times) — Brand New Congress (BNC), which is the brainchild of four staffers from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, is recruiting candidates to run in House and Senate races in 2018. It distinguishes itself from similar efforts by recruiting both Democrats and Republicans. The unifying thread is that every candidate endorses its platform, which calls for a single-payer healthcare system, nearly $5 trillion in infrastructure investment, a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free college and trade school, and a major expansion of due process protections.
BNC aims to put forward a unified slate of candidates who, by running on the same platform, create synergies and momentum that will transform Congress. “It has to be run in a different way,” says Corbin Trent, BNC’s communications director. “Not as a bunch of individual campaigns, but as a unit.” BNC aims to field at least 50 candidates in 2018 and many more in 2020.
Trent, a BNC co-founder, spoke with In These Times about BNC’s founding and future.
