When Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders suspended their run for the presidency in March and April respectively of this year, the focus on who progressive Democrats should support has now shifted over to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Referring to Biden as a safe bet, these voters have slowly shifted their attention to Biden and his policies. Since August, a strong support for Biden has risen from 46% to 57% and 59% of voters under the age of 30 support Biden over Trump according to the Pew Research Center. 

Amongst this wave of support, the Settle for Biden movement, a progressive grassroots organization, was formed. The Settle for Biden team consists of a diverse group of volunteers aged 17 to 25 who, like many former Warren and Sanders supporters, are settling for Biden and encouraging others to vote for progressive policies.

The movement started in April when 19-year-old founder Sam Weinberg decided he was going to,“do everything within [his] personal power to make sure that Donald Trump doesn’t have a second term,” as he stated in a Teen Vogue interview. Having spent 18 months abroad, Weinberg returned to find a stressful political climate in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. After seeing that many people were calling Biden and Trump “two sides of the same coin”, he decided to take action.

The message of the Settle for Biden movement has resonated with people all around the country, including for some local organizations and groups in Fullerton. Using Instagram as their main platform, these groups mainly focus on local political issues but have now begun to urge followers to vote for the candidate whose intent is to improve the conditions throughout the nation. This is a message that Biden himself has promoted throughout the entirety of his campaign.

Fullerton for Change, an organization of Fullerton citizens who support and promote progressive political initiatives, shares the sentiment of settling for Biden. Using a mix of colorful graphics and photos from around the OC community, they constantly post about ongoing issues. Recently, these posts have been about the importance of voting for Biden. Like many supporters of the Settle for Biden movement, they are concerned about the future of the country should President Trump win a second term.

In a statement, Fullerton for Change expressed,“Four more years of Trump will further radicalize racists, encourage violence from police, endanger women’s health, deport asylum-seekers, and increase the economic gap between citizens and billionaires/corporations. We cannot let that happen.”

Finding a way to prevent these issues from continuing to happen is a sentiment that Carolina Mendez, a fourth-year student at Cal State Fullerton also shares. Mendez, a political science major and former Sanders supporter, serves as the President of the College Progressives of CSUF and the Vice President of the College Democrats of CSUF. The College Progressives of CSUF is a student organization on the CSUF campus that is focused on promoting and continuing the progressive movement on campus and beyond. The College Democrats of CSUF is the official branch of the Democratic Party at CSUF. Both groups have been using social media to communicate with students, providing them with information regarding the election including deadlines, candidates and measures on the ballot.

“The justifications for voting for Biden/Harris this election are abundant: their platform seeks to improve the lives of those who are marginalized. It discusses ambitious goals for disability rights, women’s issues, LGBTQIA+ rights, criminal justice reform, and combatting

climate change,” Mendez said. 

The platform that the Biden/Harris campaign is running on has attracted the attention of many former Bernie supporters, especially in recent months when Biden and Sanders announced their Unity Task Force. The Unity Task Force is a  110- page policy that brings attention to issues that were of major importance to Bernie supporters, such as climate change and healthcare. If the Unity Task Force were to be successful, it would create the “largest mobilization of public investments in procurement [and] infrastructure since World War II”, according to a senior campaign aide for Biden.

The importance of the Biden/Harris platform and policies has also become an important matter  to SoCal for Biden, an organization of voters in Southern California dedicated to electing Biden/Harris and flipping the Senate. This group of voters has also continuously posted about the election, encouraging their audience to vote for Biden and informing them about current socio political issues, such as the recent SCOTUS vote for the nomination of federal judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Christian Billson, a volunteer organizer at SoCal for Biden, said that he is excited about the upcoming progressive platform.

“This election has really made it clear that the choice we face isn’t between different policy objectives. The choice is really between whether we want to continue the American experiment in democracy or watch a dramatic shift toward autocracy,” he said.

Like the local groups and organizations, the Settle for Biden team has a similar focus on bringing attention to the issues that Biden is campaigning with whilst encouraging people to vote for the improvement of these issues. 

Social media director for Settle for Biden, Aditya Bhalla, a former Sanders supporter, said that he continues to wish that Sanders was the Democratic nominee, but added, “our best option is to get Joe elected and from there, try to push him as far left as we can.”

Bhalla believes it is important for people to vote for Biden because of Trump’s actions as president, among them being the manner in which he has handled the postal service as well as how he has continuously questioned the integrity and legitimacy of the election.

“Regardless of whether we believe in Joe Biden’s policies, Joe Biden is not going to threaten those fundamental things about our democracy,” he said.

Jasmine Hyman, a graphic designer at Settle for Biden, shared a similar sentiment about Biden.

“I think it comes down to settling for good rather than evil. I think it’s really important in this election for the party to come together… to settle because I think it’s a dire political situation and right now isn’t the time for partisan fighting, it’s time for uniting behind this candidate,” she said.

The tensions are high in this presidential race. With 11 days until Election Day, the Settle for Biden organization and local groups that share the sentiment are continuing to encourage people to vote. 

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