State Sen. Vincent Fort had perhaps one of the biggest moments of his political career on Tuesday when, hours after he announced he flipped his endorsement from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders, he introduced the Vermont senator to a cheering crowd of more than 4,800.
But the short speech was also something else: A preview of his message if he decides to run for mayor – an increasingly likely prospect according to City Hall wags.
He instantly becomes one of the Vermont senator's top surrogates in the South, where his campaign has picked up support from only a handful of black elected officials. And it put Fort at loggerheads with Georgia's Democratic establishment – including top Clinton surrogate Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
Fort said there were three reasons he switched his support: Sanders’ “courage to take on the Wall Street billionaires.” His support for a Medicare for All plan. And his backing of the fight to raise Georgia’s minimum wage to $15.
A conversation with the Atlanta Democrat after the event only reinforced the notion that a Sanders-like insurgent campaign against the establishment could be the possible blueprint of a Fort campaign if he enters an already crowded race to replace Reed.
“Any election that I ever run in the future is going to be about creating a peoples’ movement, a grassroots movement,” said Fort. “And that’s the intersection between what Bernie is doing and what I’m doing.”
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