'Groundbreaking': Democratic Co-Sponsors Rush Aboard Bernie's Medicare for All Train

A quarter of Democratic Caucus members in the U.S. Senate have now signed on as co-sponsors of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Medicare for All bill, which he plans to introduce Wednesday, signaling a shift among party lawmakers, who may be swayed by recent polling that has indicated a majority of Americans and more than two-thirds of Democrats favor a single-payer national healthcare system.

As of this writing on Tuesday afternoon, the 12 co-sponsors are:

Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
Tom Udall (D-N.M.)

Udall, the most recent addition, announced his co-sponsorship with a statement posted to Twitter:

Last weekend, Sen. Patrick Leahy said he is “likely to support” the bill, but he has not yet come out as a co-sponsor.

As senators lined up to pledge their support on Monday and Tuesday, it became clear that since Sanders made single payer central to his 2016 presidential campaign, the political needle has indeed shifted.

Sharing a Politico piece titled “Democratic foes of Trump flock to single-payer ahead of 2020″—which references predictions that any potential 2020 challenger to President Donald Trump will need to support single payer to win over voters—Students for National Health Program enthusiastically welcomed the surge of endorsements while journalist and activist Shaun King called the shift “a groundbreaking development.”

In a Washington Post news analysis, entitled “The dam is breaking on Democrats’ support for single player,” Aaron Blake noted how during last year’s Democratic primary season, “Hillary Clinton dismissed single-payer as ‘a theoretical debate about some better idea that will never, ever come to pass.’ Fast-forward a year, and it’s leading Democratic presidential hopefuls like Clinton that are spearheading this.”