Going into Iowa as the frontrunner is a far cry from the 2016, when Sanders was a long shot against Hillary Clinton, and ultimately lost in a bitterly fought primary. This time around, however, Sanders has a campaign that has learned from past mistakes, lacks the in-fighting of four years ago and is
DES MOINES, Iowa — For much of the Democratic presidential primary race, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters have felt ignored, particularly by the media establishment. But now, with just one day until primary voting begins in the Iowa caucuses, Sanders’s status as one of the top candidates in the crowded field is unmistakable.
Despite his apparent discomfort with the spotlight, low name recognition and small initial campaign staff, Sanders’s message of fighting income inequality, universal healthcare and free public college and curbing corporate influence on politics caught on. One month after launching, Sanders held a formal announcement in his hometown of Burlington, Vt., that was attended by over 5,000 people.
The congresswomen also helped counter a narrative that plagued Sanders in 2016, that his campaign and supporters were too male and too white. While Sanders struggled to appeal to people of color last time, a recent national poll showed him leading among nonwhite voters. The composition and tenor of Sanders’s team isn’t the only major change to his campaign. His current platform is headlined by a host of new issues at the top, including an immigration reform plan with a moratorium on deportations until the system is audited, a “Green New Deal” to combat climate change and a $2.5 trillion affordable housing plan. The policies that made up the core of his last run are still there, but he has been able to broaden his message.
Another crucial component of the campaign has been Sanders’s wife, Jane Sanders, who Shakir says has been “giving input on all of the major decisions.” Along with featuring personal stories from voters, Sanders has shared more of his own past on the campaign trail. The senator has given a series of interviews where he discussed his experience of growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., as the son of working class Jewish immigrants, seeing the Holocaust decimate much of his father’s family and losing his mother to an illness shortly after he finished high school.
Since then, along with the small town halls featuring voter stories and the interviews about his childhood, Shakir noted Sanders has shared his personality in other ways, including showcasing his love of sports and appearances with his family. For Shakir, this allows voters to see “a true version of who Bernie Sanders is in a three-dimensional way.”
“Most importantly, he just wants someone who can carry on and push this movement in the direction that he has been building it for his adult life,” Shakir said of Sanders. “He’s not going to be naive about the fact that he’s 78 years old. He had a heart attack. He will think about somebody who will carry this on.”
“When you’re in first place everybody is shooting at the same target, and that’s your back,” Weaver said. Warren’s campaign declined to comment on the matter. In an interview with CBS late last month, she said, “I’ve said all I’m going to say about that.”
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