Opinionnot Sure What Socialists Believe You Might Already Be One
But as Bidens case for his superior electability collapses, it makes sense that voters would take a second look at Sanders, who, in addition to polling well against Trump, aligns more closely with the Democratic Party base particularly, according to some polls, black and Hispanic voters on key policy issues like immigration and “Medicare for All.”
Are voters right to believe in Bernie? While polls can only tell us so much at this juncture, the latest one from Quinnipiac University surveying all registered voters shows him doing well in a head-to-head against Trump, beating him 51-43 percent in the same poll, Biden bests Trump 50-43 and Bloomberg does so 51-42. Sanders, however, polls the best against Trump with independents which makes sense, as hes the longest-serving independent member of Congress in U.S. history.
Bernie Sanders Comes Closest To Beating Trump In Texas New Poll Says
President Donald Trump may still be leading the political polls in Texas, but data released Wednesday show Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is actually the biggest threat to Trump winning the state, although former Vice President Joe Biden is still the current Democratic front runner in Texas.
Polling by the non-partisan organization, the Texas Lyceum, showed that in a trial presidential election ballot, Sanders held 47 percent to Trumpâs 50 percent. When Biden was put up against the president in a hypothetical matchup, Biden scored 46 percent to Trumpâs 51 percent.
Biden did, however, pick up the win for the overall poll as 28 percent of potential Democratic voters in the Texas primary supported Biden. Sanders came in second place with 26 percent while Senator Elizabeth Warren came in a distant third place with 13 percent, a full 13 points behind Sanders.
Newsweek reached out to the Sanders campaign for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Rounding out the top five were billionaire Michael Bloomberg with 9 percent and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 6 percent.
Trump lost the 2016 Texas Republican primary to Texas Senator Ted Cruz by a wide margin. Cruz wound up with almost 44 percent of the vote while Trump came in second with only 26.7 percent. But after Cruzâs popularity spiraled, culminating in a defeat in the Indiana primary, Cruz suspended his campaign.
Bernie Or Bust Wont Beat Trump
None of this is meant to endorse any sort of hostage-taking Bernie or bust mentality.
His followers occasional threats to withhold support for their nonpreferred nominee are as unconscionable as theyd be from anyone who should oppose Trump, given the purposeful damage this president gleefully does to the most vulnerable. This spite along with a sometimes creepy hostility toward normie Democrats and a willingness to traffic in conspiratorial thinking that invests mystical sway in a sometimes comically inept Democratic National Committee offers some evidence that this movement may lack the coalition-building potential necessary to defeat Trump.
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But this divisiveness does not often appear in Sanders himself, who has a proven distaste for distractions like Hillary Clintons damn emails.
Like the vast majority of Sanders supporters in the 2016 election, Id gladly vote for any Democratic nominee over Trump. This senator isnt even my favorite senator running for the nomination. Yet one reason I have to seriously consider Sanders is that he has the clearest path to uniting the Democratic Party and ousting the evil clown in the Oval Office.
And if you only care about winning, you cant ignore that.
Jason Sattler, a writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a member of USA TODAYs Board of Contributors and host of The GOTMFV Show podcast. Follow him on Twitter:
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Sanders Backs Biden As Ex
WASHINGTON Bernie Sanders has endorsed Joe Bidens presidential campaign, encouraging his progressive supporters to rally behind the presumptive Democratic nominee in an urgent bid to defeat President Donald Trump.
I am asking all Americans, Im asking every Democrat, Im asking every independent, Im asking a lot of Republicans, to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse, the Vermont senator said Monday in a virtual event with Biden.
The backing came less than a week after Sanders ended his presidential campaign, which was centered around progressive policies such as universal health care. There were early signs that some leading progressives werent ready to fully follow Sanders lead. And Trumps campaign was eager to use the endorsement to tie Biden more closely to Sanders, whose identity as a democratic socialist is objectionable to Republicans and some Democrats.
Still, Sanders embrace of Biden was crucial for someone who is tasked with bridging the Democratic Partys entrenched ideological divides. Democratic disunity helped contribute to Hillary Clintons loss to Trump in 2016.
Sanders said theres no great secret out there that you and I have our differences.
By Joseph Ax
6 Min Read
But the latest Reuters/Ipsos polling shows Sanders rising momentum in the race a near win in Iowa, a narrow victory in New Hampshire and a decisive win in Nevada has given him more credibility with Democratic voters.
NOT RADICAL
Scaramucci: Bernie Could ‘absolutely’ Beat Trump
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci isnt shy about his feelings towards President Donald Trump following his 10-day tenure in the White House.
Scaramucci previously made it clear that he doesnt think Trump will get re-elected president, asserting that Democratic candidates Michael Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden have a chance to beat him.
Recent polls and early Democratic primaries, though, indicated that Sen. Bernie Sanders is becoming the clear frontrunner. And despite the fact that Sanders is a self-proclaimed socialist, Scaramucci said that he absolutely can win.
If you think Bernie Sanders cant win, youre not paying close enough attention to the Bernie Sanders movement, the same way people werent paying close enough attention to the Donald Trump movement in 2016, Scaramucci said on Yahoo Finances On the Move
A recent poll from Morning Consult backs up Scaramuccis claim that Sanders could beat Trump: 32% of Democratic voters stated hes the best candidate to go up against the current commander-in-chief, with Bloomberg second at 19% and Biden third at 18%.
According to Real Clear Politics, Sanders would beat Trump by approximately 2.4 points if the election were held today.
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What Texas Democrats Value
While many Hispanic officeholders in Texas have endorsed other candidates, Sanders focus on lessening the countrys economic divide appeals to many Latinos. And thats not just the young, interviews with poll respondents suggest.
Hes just going to give ammunition to that other guy to win the election, he said, referring to President Donald Trump.
Fears that Sanders might not be able to win in November, though, drive others into Biden and Bloombergs arms.
I think Bernies great. Really, honestly, said registered nurse Joyce Chan, 41, of Houston, whos backing Biden. Im just a little worried that wont be able to beat Trump. I just want a good, strong candidate that will have a really good chance of beating Trump.
Retired oil and gas production foreman Tommy Henderson of Odessa, a Bloomberg backer, said hed like to see more free community college programs that put people to work, but not Sanders free college for all.
Asked why hes not for the incumbent, whos also a businessman, Henderson replied,
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And after two caucuses and one primary, Bernie Sanders is the Democratic front-runner after trailing Joe Biden in the polls for most of the campaign. Now, he has momentum.
But can Bernie win? That’s the 270-electoral vote question.
Because the No. 1 issue for Democrats this election is simple: Beating Trump.
And interestingly, according to a , 45% of Democrats thought Biden had a better chance of beating Trump in November, while Sanders trailed in second at 24%.
Typically, the most ideologically extreme candidate is the one worst positioned to win over swing voters in swing states. Barry Goldwater and George McGovern are iconic — if dated — examples. Both lost in landslides.
But what if this time it’s different?
As Pete Hamby wrote in Vanity Fair, “Instead of asking if Sanders is unelectable, ask another question: What if Sanders is actually the MOST electable Democrat?”
Now this might sound like magical thinking, but Hamby explains: “In the age of Trump, hyper-partisanship, institutional distrust, and social media, Sanders could be examined as a candidate almost custom-built to go head-to-head with Trump this year.”
Bernie is a political celebrity: People know what he stands for, for better or worse. He is authentic and admirably consistent about his self-described democratic socialist views.
But there’s plenty to suggest that those views play better in a polarized Democratic primary than in a general election.
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How Huge Of A Turnout Surge Does Sanders Need To Be As Electable As A Moderate
The case that Bernie Sanders is just as electable as the more moderate candidates thus appears to rest on a leap of faith: that youth voter turnout would surge in the general election by double digits if and only if Bernie Sanders is nominated, compensating for the voters his nomination pushes to Trump among the rest of the electorate.
There are reasons to doubt a Sanders-driven youth turnout surge of this size would materialize. First, people who promise in surveys they will vote often dont, meaning the turnout estimates that Sanderss electability case rests upon are probably extremely inaccurate. Second, such a turnout surge is large in comparison to other effects on turnout. For example, Sanders would need to stimulate a youth turnout boost much larger than the turnout boost Barack Obamas presence on the ballot stimulated among black voters in 2008.
Third, Sanderss electability case requires this 11 percentage point turnout increase among young voters in 2020 to occur on top of any turnout increase that would otherwise occur if another Democrat were nominated.
And this enormous 11 percentage point turnout boost is only enough to make Sanders as electable as the more moderate candidates, given the other votes he loses to Trump. For him to be the most electable Democratic candidate based on his ability to inspire youth turnout, Sanderss nomination would need to increase youth turnout by even more.
Donald Trump Bernie Bro
The presidents team seems to see the senator from Vermonts candidacy as a no-lose proposition.
Not so long ago, Donald Trump seemed obsessed with just one of the Democrats vying to replace him: Joe Biden. Over the past year, as the former vice president became the front-runner, Trumps campaign spent about $270,000 on Facebook ads targeting Bidenmore than it spent against other top candidates. Then Biden began to collapse and Bernie Sanders started to rise. Trumps social-media ads demonizing Sleepy Joe tailed off. Yet thus far, theres been no appreciable pickup in anti-Sanders ads. Its as if Trumpworld might want to go easy on Sanders.
It does. Team Trump views Sanders as the weakest candidate left on the Democratic side, and isnt eager to do anything to impede his rise, several of the presidents past and present political advisers told me. They seem to see Sanders as a no-lose proposition: The president wins whether the senator from Vermont captures the nomination or not.
Sanders would be every holiday present rolled into one, Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary and an exsenior adviser to a pro-Trump super PAC, told me. With Bernie, theres a general agreement that hes a gift.
The counterpuncher isnt counterpunching much at allnot yet, anyway. People like his message. Hes got energy, Trump said about Sanders to reporters in the Oval Office earlier this month.
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And Then Coronavirus Changed Everything
In the US, concern about coronavirus hit suddenly and decisively around mid-March, pushing politics to the periphery in news bulletins but not necessarily in the minds of Americans.
Healthcare was front of mind. So too was the economy. Presidential leadership mattered in a way it hadnt during the Russia probe or Ukraine scandal.
With sports and TV shows cancelled, millions of Americans tuned in to the first one-on-one debate featuring Biden and Sanders.
Biden, aided by the lack of a cheering crowd, laid out step-by-step plans for how hed fight the virus if he were president today.
Sanders stuck to the same policy ideas he always had, talking about redistributing wealth and overhauling the healthcare system.
It has nothing to do with Medicare for All. That does not solve the problem at all, Biden responded.
People are looking for results, not a revolution.
The next round of primaries again went to Biden. Then the next.
Living through a world turned upside down, Americans went the way of South Carolina and decided they could no longer entertain the idea of a political revolution or a sudden shift to socialist policies. They wanted safety, security and predictability.
They wanted Joe Biden.
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Would Bernie Sanders Have Done Better Than Joe Biden In The Us Election
Sanderss brand of radical politics is popular among activists but it appeals less to the key voters needed to win the White House.
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The Reason Sanders Appears Equally Electable
These Bernie or bust voters that come off the sidelines for Sanders in our survey are almost entirely limited to one group: Democrats and independents under age 35. These voters are about 11 percentage points more likely to say they would vote for Democrats if Sanders is nominated and almost all of them say they would not vote at all or vote third party if hes not on the ballot.
However, the Bernie or bust phenomenon appears almost entirely limited to left-leaning young people, who are usually a small share of the overall electorate. This stands in contrast to many theories of Sanderss electoral appeal: For example, whites without a college degree a demographic some speculate Sanders could win over are actually more likely to say they will vote for Trump against Sanders than against the other Democrats. The same is true of the rest of the electorate, except left-leaning young people.
This finding in our data mirrors many other surveys: Morning Consult finds dramatic increases in young Americans stated turnout intentions when asked how they would vote in matchups between Sanders and Trump.
