Dem
53
Ties
2
GOP
45
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is not always seen as a team player. After all, he isn't even technically on the blue team. He is more on the green team, and some of the candidates he has supported in the primaries have not been the ones the Democratic leadership wanted. That was particularly the case in NYC House races where he backed a DSA candidate the leadership Did. Not. Want.
All may be forgiven now. He has a vast ($23 million) war chest and is starting to spend it, probably because he will be 89 in 2030 when he is next up and is unlikely to run then. So why not spend money now to help lefty candidates? This time, since it is the general election, he is not crossing the party leadership. While the pooh-bahs didn't want Abdul El-Sayed (and other DSA or DSA-adjacent candidates) to win their primaries, they very much want them to win their general-election battles, and having Sanders' money and help is very welcome. So the Democratic leadership is pleased as punch with both Ossoff and Sanders, even though their motivations are opposite (Ossoff is definitely running again and wants the goodwill while Sanders is probably not running again and wants his type of candidate to win as his last hurrah).
Besides El-Sayed, Sanders is helping Senate candidates Peggy Flanagan (MN) and Angie Nixon (FL) as well as Keith Ellison, who is running for reelection as Minnesota AG and undoubtedly has future plans for higher office some day. Not only is Sanders giving money to his favored candidates, but he is also working on GOTV campaigns for some of his candidates. This is especially important for candidates with little experience running high-profile statewide campaigns, something Sanders knows a lot about.
In addition to the money and GOTV efforts, Sanders, at 85, is a tireless campaigner and is out on the trail for House and Senate candidates he likes. For House candidates like Randy Villegas, running in CA-22 against David Valadao, and Aisha Wahab, who won the special election in CA-14 for the seat vacated by the disgraced Eric Swalwell, Sanders' presence at a rally is a huge draw the candidates could otherwise never get.
What Sanders is not doing is transferring money to the DSCC. That committee might spend it on James Talarico in Texas or Mary Peltola in Alaska. While Sanders certainly hopes they win (so the Democrats take the Senate), he is saving his firepower to help left-wing candidates, and neither Talarico nor Peltola is in that bin. An outsider might say Sanders would be most effective helping in deep-red states (like Texas and Alaska), rather than places like Minnesota, which Flanagan can probably win on her own, but that is not his plan. Giving money to Nixon in Florida strikes us as a couple of bridges too far for him, but would be a bigger feather in his cap than Yankee Doodle's if he can pull it off. In politics, sometimes you take risks. It comes with the territory.
Republicans are trying to make Sanders into a boogeyman, but that is not likely to work. After all, he is a straight old white guy and they don't demonize well. The voters don't associate straight old white guys with left-wing politics and his main pitches have been for doubling the minimum wage and making sure everyone has health care. There is actually plenty of support for those positions. (V)