User:Czar/drafts/Bernie campaign, 2020

Background

Past campaign
Trump
Expectations

Platform

Strategy

The Sanders campaign invested early in the delegate-rich California Super Tuesday primary, for which staffers were door-knocking months in advance. Sanders had broad support in the state and led polls of young voters, progressives, and Latinos. He was among the first candidates to run television advertisements and had the largest ground operation, with 20 offices open by February. Their emphasis on California, whose primary was moved from June to March, reflected the organization's insight that the state would play a larger role in the delegate race.^[2]

Opponents of Sanders mainly attacked his support for single-payer Medicare for All, but in places like Nevada, a majority of Democratic voters supported the measure.^[3]

Announcement

Deciding to run
Announcement

Campaign trail

^[4]

Sanders led the Democratic primaries in fundraising with $100 million by the turn of the decade. Sanders, however, trailed in congressional and gubernatorial endorsements.^[5] Sanders supporters in early primary states showed signs of steadfastness and enthusiasm.^[6]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement of Sanders was 2019's most significant, precipitating both Warren's decline from frontrunner status and Sanders's climb.^[7] It was an unexpected revival after Sanders' heart attack.^[8]

Sanders gained momentum through January and his polls challenged Biden's frontrunner status by late January 2020,^[9] after consolidating his 2016 base^[10] and Warren's drop in the polls.^[11] Sanders also led the primary in labor endorsements.^[12]

The Sanders campaign had anticipated winning the Iowa primary, but delays in results reporting drained the campaign's momentum.^[13] Reporting errors in the close primary further entrenched Sanders supporters mistrust towards the Democratic National Committee.^[14]

"de facto frontrunner"^[15]^[16]

The Nevada caucuses dismantled stereotypes about Sanders' appeal^[17] and established him as the frontrunner.^[3] While said to have a ceiling of support, lacking appeal outside of his core base of "crazy college kids", Sanders won the non-white vote and every age category below 65. He performed well with moderates and won every issue besides foreign policy.^[17] Sanders ultimately won Nevada's primary with a strong base of young, Latino, and liberal voters. Unlike the prior contests, Nevada represented states with significant non-white populations, and Sanders won the largest share of those voters.^[3] In Nevada, he sustained attacks from the powerful Culinary Union, who opposed his health care policy, but Sanders ultimately performed better with voters from unionized households than his competitors. Politico wrote that the race had become "Sanders' to lose", having the most non-self-funding, the best organization, and the widest coalition.^[17]

As Sanders rose, Democratic Party megadonors did not coalesce into a movement to stop him because they did not want to risk hurting their increasingly likely nominee and did not want to stoke the ire of his base.^[18] Following intelligence reports that Russia intends to aid the Sanders and Trump campaigns, Sanders condemned the interference attempt.^[19]

Suspended campaign

Fundraising

^[20]

Despite his outsized criticism of big tech companies, their employees sent him more money than other primary candidates.^[21]

Media coverage

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/business/media/bernie-sanders-media.html
Kludt, Tom (February 18, 2020). "Fox Has Been 'More Fair': Why Bernie's Team Has Had It With MSNBC". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
Pompeo, Joe (February 24, 2020). "'Phil Is Doing His Best to Give Bernie His Due': After a Sanders Surge and a Matthews Gaffe, MSNBC Prepares to Pivot". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
Stelter, Brian (February 24, 2020). "What is MSNBC's problem with Bernie Sanders?". CNN Business. Retrieved February 25, 2020.

Debate performance

Despite national reservations towards his left politics, Vox's Matthew Yglesias described Sanders as an effective politician and debater with a consistent economic message and ability to navigate difficult arguments.^[22]

Supporters

^[23]

Sanders critics cited online harassment and bullying from his supporters as a cause for concern.^[24]

Internet memes generated as a result of the campaign included "I am once again asking for your financial support", in which users modified this caption from a video clip of Sanders outside in winter. In another image macro, users modified the text in a photograph of Sanders writing on an easel.^[25]

Democratic Party

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/15/texas-dems-sweat-bernie-sanders-ticket-110524

References

^ Templon, John; McMorris-Santoro, Evan; Parti, Tarini (April 19, 2016). "How Bernie Sanders Raises All That Money". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ Taylor, Jeffrey (February 7, 2020). "Bernie Sanders Builds Big Primary Machine to Win Prized California". Bloomberg.com.
^ ^a ^b ^c https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/22/bernie-sanders-latinos-young-voters-nevada-116752
^ Severns, Maggie. "Behind Bernie's rise: A $50 million spending surge — and more where that came from". Politico. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
^ Enten, Harry (January 5, 2020). "It's not just the polls that show Biden and Sanders leading the primary". CNN. Retrieved January 9, 2020. Sanders reportedly pulled in about $34.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, which makes for a total sum of nearly $100 million over the 2020 campaign. No one else is even close.
^ Salvanto, Anthony; De Pinto, Jennifer; Khanna, Kabir; Backus, Fred (January 5, 2020). "Sanders starts 2020 in strong position in Iowa and New Hampshire — CBS News Battleground Tracker". CBS News. Retrieved January 9, 2020. Apart from recent gains in New Hampshire, Sanders' support is still best characterized by its steadiness and strength compared to other candidates who have seen more volatility. ... Sanders also leads the field on these two measures in Iowa.
^ Scher, Bill (January 3, 2020). "Who's Winning 2024?". Politico. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
^ Lerer, Lisa (January 9, 2020). "Larry David's Nightmare". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
^ Montellaro, Zach (January 26, 2020). "Polling roundup: Sanders challenges Biden's frontrunner status". Politico. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
^ Enten, Harry (January 24, 2020). "Bernie Sanders is climbing everywhere". CNN. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
^ Martin, Jonathan; Ember, Sydney (January 25, 2020). "Sanders Seizes Lead in Volatile Iowa Race, Times Poll Finds". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
^ Otterbein, Holly (January 24, 2020). "Bernie's labor support snowballs". Politico. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
^ Otterbein, Holly (February 4, 2020). "Scenes from Bernie's dispirited would-be victory party". Politico. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ Zilbermints, Regina (February 7, 2020). "Iowa debacle deepens division between Sanders, national party". TheHill. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ Wilson, Christopher (February 8, 2020). "Sanders campaign, sensing a win in New Hampshire, looks ahead — all the way to the convention". Yahoo News. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ Walker, Hunter (February 2, 2020). "4 years after defeat, Bernie Sanders built a campaign that made him the frontrunner". Yahoo News. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/22/bernie-sanders-nevada-2020-election-116762
^ https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/democrat-megadonors-bernie-sanders-116556
^ https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/bernie-sanders-condemns-russian-116640
^ Goldmacher, Shane (February 6, 2020). "Sanders Raises $25 Million in January, a Huge Show of Financial Strength". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
^ Schleifer, Theodore (February 6, 2020). "Big Tech opponent Bernie Sanders raises more money from Big Tech employees than anyone else". Vox. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ Yglesias, Matthew (February 7, 2020). "Bernie Sanders showed us he's a very skilled politician". Vox. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ Lewis, Simon (February 9, 2020). "How Bernie Sanders' passionate base revitalized his campaign". Reuters.
^ Devine, Curt; Griffin, Drew; Bronstein, Scott (February 7, 2020). "The mean side of a political revolution". CNN. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
^ Hoffman, Ashley (February 7, 2020). "The Bernie Sanders Meme Pile on Has Commenced". Time. Retrieved February 9, 2020.