A heart attack, formidable rivals and age concerns have failed to derail presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, whose campaign, buoyed by fervent young supporters, has overcome hurdles to reaffirm his position as a top White House contender.
“We’re proving you don’t need to beg the wealthy and the powerful” for donations, the liberal US senator from Vermont said Thursday in announcing his campaign raised $34.5 million in the final three months of 2019, the largest haul yet of any Democrat in the field.
NOW: Campaign Manager @fshakir is live in Iowa to kick off the new year with an update for supporters on our path to victory. https://t.co/sYxoZVDaos
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 3, 2020
Sanders has reclaimed second place in the Democratic Party race from fellow liberal Elizabeth Warren, his US Senate colleague who saw a meteoric rise in recent months, as the candidates battle to challenge President Donald Trump in November.
While Sanders is polling second in in the crucial state of Iowa, which opens the nomination race with voting on February 3, he leads outright in New Hampshire, which votes the following week.
Sanders is in a close second in Iowa, according to a poll average compiled by website RealClearPolitics, behind young moderate Pete Buttigieg
Although the self-described Democratic socialist trails frontrunner Joe Biden nationally, he has outshone the moderate former vice president in fundraising — $96 million in 2019 versus Biden’s $60 million.
Trump's dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars.
Trump promised to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 3, 2020
The feat is all the more impressive given that Sanders, the race’s oldest candidate at 78, started the fourth quarter in a perilous position, having suffered a heart attack on October 1. His staff was criticized for not being transparent at first about the potential campaign-ending vulnerability.
But Sanders made an impressive recovery, and was given a clean bill of health last week by a cardiologist who said he can continue campaigning “without limitation.” While recovering from heart trouble he landed a massive endorsement from liberal congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a popular figure among progressives.
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She has since hit the campaign trail several times alongside Sanders, who has also earned support from other luminaries of the party’s left wing including Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
"It's critically important to have someone like Bernie Sanders in office after we get rid of #45, because we have to have someone in there who's not just going to heal and unite, but is dramatically going to change the systems that are in place." –@JumaaneWilliams pic.twitter.com/5VUJu6WNzm
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 2, 2020
Meanwhile the Waltons pay entry-level Walmart workers a starvation wage of $11 an hour. That is what outrageous, unfettered greed looks like. And we're going to end it. https://t.co/r0xsuQjKiO
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 2, 2020
“They lend him a certain credibility with non-white voters” following his 2016 Democratic race against Hillary Clinton when his campaign was “criticized for lack of diversity,” Miles Coleman, an expert with the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told AFP.
Over the past year Sanders has brought together a sprawling coalition, from environmental activists, labor leaders and rapper Cardi B to an army of thousands of young volunteers.
Joe Biden nationally, he has outshone the moderate former vice president in fundraising — $96 million in 2019 versus Biden’s $60 million
“With that kind of grassroots effort, a multiracial, multicultural grassroots movement, we’re going to defeat the worst president in the history of our country, Donald Trump,” said Sanders, who was clad in a parka to brave the Iowa cold in a video he posted on Twitter Wednesday as he kicked off a bus tour across the state.
The rejuvenated candidate issued a defiant message, predicting that he would win Iowa and then New Hampshire on his way “to win the Democratic nomination.”
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Authenticity
With the image of a convalescing Sanders in the rearview mirror, the often-disheveled, occasionally gruff-toned lawmaker has appeared vigorous and even whimsical in recent Democratic debates.
https://twitter.com/BornKern/status/1211877210417762309
The Sanders policy platform is unapologetically left-wing. He proposes universal health care and tuition-free college and backs the Green New Deal transition to renewable energy, programs that critics say will cost tens of trillions of dollars.
The rejuvenated candidate issued a defiant message, predicting that he would win Iowa and then New Hampshire on his way “to win the Democratic nomination
The candidate who calls for nothing less than “political revolution” is counting on solid support among young voters. “Millennials appreciate authenticity,” Coleman said.
And with Sanders being “not your typical, polished politician,” he appears more relatable to young Americans, especially those who came of age after the 2008 financial crisis and have not grown up believing “socialism” is a dirty word, Coleman added. In influential Iowa, Sanders has an advantage.
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“He has a strong grassroots organization from 2016 which he has maintained and added to,” said William Sweeney of American University’s School of Public Affairs. Sanders is in a close second in Iowa, according to a poll average compiled by website RealClearPolitics, behind young moderate Pete Buttigieg.
While #ElizabethWarren and other Dems were voting to increase Trump's military budget and for Iran sanctions that escalated tensions, #BernieSanders voted against it all and has steadfastly been trying to stop Trump's march to war.#NoWarWithIran#PresidentSanders https://t.co/6Rvl3LSNDg
— TrekkerTeach (@trekkerteach12) January 3, 2020
In New Hampshire, Sanders is leading all comers, including Warren, who has slipped to fourth place there.
Each is nonetheless under threat from the other because they occupy the same ideological space. But Warren remains the only woman in the top tier, something which could work to her advantage in the long run.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk.