It appears increasingly likely that the 2020 Democratic primary field will be the most wide open in recent memory, and perhaps in the history of American politics. As candidates move through the nomination process, there are already arguments being made as to the strengths—and weaknesses—of those who have entered the field and their chances in a general election against President Trump.
Bernie Sanders
Date launched: February 19, 2019
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the runner-up in 2016’s Democratic presidential primary, entered the 2020 Democratic race with sky-high name recognition and a massive email list and social media presence. In his second run for the presidency, Sanders was almost immediately perceived as a frontrunner, a far cry from his insurgent challenge against Hillary Clinton four years ago. The fundraising totals from the Independent from Vermont immediately seemed to confirm those perceptions. In the first 24 hours of his campaign, Sanders raised a whopping $6 million and by the end of the first quarter he led the field in fundraising with $18.2 million.
Polling and Perception: Since the start of his 2020 bid for the White House, Sanders and his team sought to allay concerns expressed by former staffers about sexual harassment and the white male leadership of his campaign. He met with a number of staffers who had said the environment was toxic at times during the last campaign, members who were identified as bad actors were not allowed to return, and a more diverse staff was hired—led by Faiz Shakir, the first Muslim-American man to lead a major presidential campaign.
Much of Sanders’ second bid has built around the same issues that animated his previous run, as well as much of his decades-long political career, including advocating for Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage and free college. Tactically, the campaign made an early decision to have him speak more candidly about his personal life including his upbringing, his family members who were killed in the Holocaust and his student activism. This time, he was also armed with a stronger foreign policy vision, bolstered by his bipartisan work on the Yemen War Powers Resolution in the Senate.
Sanders also recently unveiled an education plan which called for a ban on for-profit charter schools, confronted the billionaire owners of Walmart at an annual shareholder meeting, delivered a speech defining democratic socialism as the best means to defeat Trump and introduced legislation to completely wipe out student loan debt. Even with a more varied policy resume and issue set, the campaign has leaned into his outsider status at times. In April, Sanders lashed out at Center for American Progress, one of the leading Democratic establishment think tanks, for a video produced by ThinkProgress, a liberal news site that is a project of the think tank.
In the weeks leading up to the first Democratic primary debate, Sanders has found himself falling somewhat in some public opinion polls, overtaken at second place by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) behind former Vice President Joe Biden. His campaign has sought to make an argument, based on head-to-head polls, that Sanders is as electable as Biden, all while drawing sharper policy contrasts with the fellow septuagenarian. Sanders will get that opportunity on Thursday night when he shares the stage with Biden.
