Vermont resident Jon Svitavsky announced on July 5 that he is challenging Sen. Bernie Sanders in his upcoming re-election in 2018. In June 2016, NBC host Joy Reid did a profile in the Daily Beast on Al Giordano, who gained a sizable following of Clinton supporters on Twitter during the primaries. Giordano claimed he would run against Sanders in 2018 but has yet to file and currently resides in Mexico City. Vermont Public Radio reported, “Jon Svitavsky, 59, says he believes that Sanders’ ‘divisive’ politics have fractured the Democratic Party nationally and paved the way for the rise of Republican President Donald Trump.” According to Svitavsky, he was recruited by a group called Organizing for Democrats-U.S.A to run against Sanders. The organization isn’t filed with the FEC and has a small following on Facebook.
On its Facebook page on June 15, the group posted, “Today OFD represents the Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senate in the State of Vermont. After Sanders voted to protect Mother Russia today, the decision was made to make this declaration.” The day before, the organization published in another post that it is “time for Democrats to unite against the Bernie Bot elements.” Folasade Adeluola, a Clinton supporter based in Indiana, also announced she is running to unseat Sanders in 2018. Her campaign website features a selfie with her and Hillary Clinton. She only has to be a legal resident of Vermont the day before the election to be eligible for the Senate seat, capitalizing on the opportunity to represent people of a state she doesn’t live in.
http://observer.com/2017/07/clinton-supporters-challenge-bernie-sanders-senate-seat/
