Sen. Bernie Sanders' last-ditch effort to reattach a $15 minimum wage provision to the Senate coronavirus relief package failed Friday morning after 8 members of the Democratic caucus joined all 50 Republicans in voting down the Vermont senator's amendment.
Those who voted against advancing Sanders' amendment were Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).
"Every single Dem who voted against a $15 minimum wage should be primaried", declared Krystal Ball, host of HillTV's "Rising".
In a statement following Friday's vote, Sanders said that "at a time when millions of people are working for starvation wages, when the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has not been raised by Congress since 2007, when the president of the United States and the House of Representatives support it, it is absolutely imperative that the Senate approve an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour".
"If any senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken", Sanders continued. "We're going to keep bringing it up, and we're going to get it done because it is what the American people demand and need".
