Sanders starts 2020 campaign with a haul, a brawl and a veterans’ foothold
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is off to a splashy start in his second run for president, quickly trumpeting a massive fundraising haul in his first 24 hours as a candidate, luring millions to his Tuesday announcement video and brawling with President Trump – signs of his potential to become a major factor in the Democratic primary.
The initial surge and one-day receipts of $6 million reflect a resilience of support for the Democratic runner-up in 2016 and served notice to his competitors, who have so far been unable to create the same groundswell with their campaign launches.
It also reinforced the strength of his established political base at a moment when other candidates are only beginning to introduce themselves to voters. That is an asset that could prove valuable, should the contest splinter the party into many different pieces.
But Sanders, 77, also is confronting a radically different political landscape than the one he faced four years ago and potential obstacles toward regaining the surprising strength he showed in 2016, when he benefited from being the only serious opponent to the eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
This time, he is facing a crowded and diverse field of challengers who, if not able to match Sanders’ fundraising prowess, have demonstrated some financial strength and have played to overflow crowds in the early voting states. Some of them are doing so with the help of staffers and supporters who backed Sanders in 2016.
Sanders, for his part, has yet to prove he can expand his appeal past his limited, if loyal following of younger voters, mostly young men. He had particular issues in 2016 in attracting older women and nonwhite voters, two Democratic blocs whose electoral prominence has only grown in the past two years.
Beyond those hurdles, Sanders has faced scrutiny over the way his campaign team handled sexual misconduct claims in 2016 and, perhaps most challenging, is no longer the sole advocate in the race for liberal priorities such Medicare-forall, a higher federal minimum wage, free community college and other policies embraced by many in the field.
Nevertheless, the first day of Sanders’ second campaign swiftly demonstrated that he still commands an audience of both defenders and detractors, surprising some Democrats who have long expected him to run but were unsure how potent a force he would prove to be.
“This is truly remarkable,” Rufus Gifford, President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign finance director, tweeted Wednesday about Sanders’ first-day haul. “I was skeptical of his ability to match his 2016 grassroots $$ magic. I was wrong.”
Democratic strategist Jon Reinish, who is not affiliated with any 2020 campaign, said there was “no question” that Sanders “has had an impressive 24 hours.”
But, Reinish said, Sanders also “enters the race with some significant baggage.”
Sanders said Wednesday that his $6 million in donations within a day of his announcement came from 225,000 contributors.
By comparison, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a rival candidate seen by some as having had the best previous leap into the race, said she hauled in about $1.5 million in her first 24 hours.
Sanders also will be able to transfer some of the more than $9 million in his Senate campaign account at the end of 2018, according to federal campaign finance records.
Small-dollar fundraising, the type that benefited Sanders in 2016 and this week, could emerge as a critical factor in the Democratic primary. There is growing skepticism among Democratic voters about wealthy benefactors’ influence on the political process, posing risks for candidates relying on large donations. Sanders ranks as the best example of that; in 2016 he kept his campaign in the running until the end of the primaries, although Clinton had a lock on the party’s major donors.
The surest sign of Sanders’ standing in the Democratic field may have come from the president the Democratic candidates are seeking to defeat. President Donald Trump appeared to be trying to elevate the firebrand liberal as part of a broader attempt to cast Democratic candidates as far-left extremists, as he escalates his effort to win a second term.
“Crazy Bernie has just entered the race. I wish him well!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, a Trump campaign spokeswoman issued a statement seeking to tether other candidates to him.
A couple of hours later, Sanders responded with his own social media missive and a link to a page on his website where people can provide their contact information.
“What’s crazy is that we have a president who is a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and a fraud. We are going to bring people together and not only defeat Trump but transform the economic and political life of this country,” Sanders tweeted, words that echoed his announcement.