Super Tuesday 2016: Bernie Sanders whips up support from Wall Street dominatrix community

Bernie Sanders' campaign against vulture capitalism won him the endorsement of an unexpected category of US voters, dominatrices with Wall Street clients. A group of sex workers from New York advertised a special treatment for "capitalist swine" living in the US financial capital, pledging to donate all profits to the Democratic primary candidate's campaign.

An online ad on Backpage encouraged BDSM lovers to "ask for the $27 Bernie Special and get spanked for 15 minutes straight. All proceeds will go to Sanders' campaign." The announcement listed the Vermont senator's slogan "Feel the Bern" as safe word and described those behind it as a "group of dommes who believe in workers' rights, destroying white supremacy and smashing the patriarchy to bits, one submissive at a time".

The ad was repurposed on social media under the hashtag "dommesforbernie", winning some positive responses. "We think it's poetic justice to dominate men who benefit from capitalism, and then donate their tributes to a candidate who stands up for those that are most harmed by it," one of the promoters, 25-year-old Mistress Simone told The Daily Dot.

It was not the first time that a group of sex workers publicly backed a presidential candidate. Sanders's primary rival Hillary Clinton had earlier won the support of prostitutes from a legal brothel near Carson City, Nevada, who have been actively campaigning for the former secretary of state under the banner of Hookers for Hillary

Sanders, who styles himself as a "democratic socialist" is seeking to make gains on the Clinton juggernaut on 1 March, as delegates for 11 states are up for grabs on the so-called Super Tuesday.

The 74-year-old said he hoped for a high turnout as he cast his vote in his hometown of Burlington "Bernie Sanders here in Vermont got at least one vote. I was working on my wife," he joked. "We're feeling pretty good," he added.