Vermont’s Independent Senator Bernie Sanders may soon join the 2020 Democrat Presidential primary.
According to Politico, he’s inching closer:
Bernie Sanders, inching closer to a second bid for the White House, has recorded a campaign video in which he says he is running for president in 2020, according to two people familiar with the spot.
It’s the latest sign the independent senator, the runner-up in the 2016 contest for the Democratic nomination, is nearing a presidential announcement.
Another hint that Sanders is getting closer to a launch: The Sanders team has been interviewing people for top staff positions, POLITICO reported this week. Chuck Rocha, a political consultant who advised Sanders’ 2016 campaign, is expected to join him again if a second bid materializes.
Sanders, who’s well-known for his European-style socialist policies, is 77 years old and would be the oldest person ever elected President by a large margin.
In a recent 2020 Democrat primary poll conducted by Emerson Polling, former Vice President Joe Biden leads the pack with 27%. Sanders clocks in at 2nd place with 17%.
Here are the poll results:
NATIONAL POLL: Biden leads the Democratic field with 27% Sanders and Harris follow with 17% and 15%. https://t.co/MzvMnxyxt6 pic.twitter.com/nPBeKgzz4o
— Emerson Polling (@EmersonPolling) February 16, 2019
Can Bernie Sanders win?
In 2016, Bernie Sanders made a deep run in the Dem primary before eventually falling to Hillary Clinton. It’s likely he faces an uphill battle towards the nomination this time around as Jonathan Bernstein recently opined for Bloomberg:
I just don’t see it. Yes, Sanders did well — beating everyone’s expectations — last time around. But I remain very skeptical that his voters had any long-term attachment to him. Of course, some did. But others simply wanted a candidate who was more liberal than Hillary Clinton; they’ll have several options to choose from this time. And others just didn’t like Clinton (or, at least, didn’t want her to be the Democratic nominee). For them, Sanders may have been nothing more than the only other candidate on the ballot. That certainly won’t be a problem this time around, at least for early primaries.
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