Challenges for Sanders
Path for progressives and moderates gets muddier
New Hampshire Democrats gave Bernie Sanders a win, and a warning.
Sanders’ durability, based both on his 2016 campaign and the first two contests this year, cannot be questioned. What remains unanswered is whether he will now attract moderates.
Among liabilities, at least among a large segment of voters, is how the 78-year-old embraces his label as a democratic socialist, and how that could be weaponized by President Donald Trump.
New Hampshire Democrats gave Bernie Sanders a win – but also a warning.
Sanders’ durability, based both on his 2016 campaign and on the first two contests this year, cannot be questioned. What remains unanswered is how moderates will now come at him and whether Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be able to compete credibly for the progressive wing. Her disappointing fourth-place showing gives supporters little confidence.
But Sanders’ liabilities are also clear, at least among a large segment of voters in the party who are wary of the 78year-old self-identified democratic socialist and how that label could be demonized by President Donald Trump. As he goes forward, the senator from Vermont will have to convince voters that he can pay for his plans to fundamentally reorder the American economy in the name of economic fairness.
New Hampshire voters acknowledged a nominee with strongly liberal views might have difficulty against Trump in November, with about 6 in 10 saying it would be harder, according to an AP VoteCast survey of more than 3,000 Democratic primary voters. And more than 7 in 10 voters chose someone else.
A majority of New Hampshire’s voters clearly wanted a moderate alternative. And Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, again made a case to be that choice with another impressive performance, winning votes across broad demographic groups, by running close to Sanders.
But Buttigieg now has new competition from Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who used a strong debate performance to vault to third place and a legitimate claim of momentum.
Both seem in sync with most Democrats’ desires. Moderates and conservatives made up a majority of voters Tuesday, according to AP VoteCast.
But things get murkier now that the contest heads to more diverse states. Polling shows that former Vice President Joe Biden has the strongest following among African American voters in South Carolina, where nonwhite voters made up about two-thirds of the 2016
Democratic primary electorate, state data show. Biden’s anemic showing in New Hampshire may test that.
Next up is Nevada, then South Carolina and then 14 states on Super Tuesday, March 3, including mega-states California and Texas.
Klobuchar’s finish will guarantee she gets another look from voters.
The problem for Klobuchar is almost no infrastructure in the huge map unfurling before Democratic presidential hopefuls. She announced a seven-figure ad buy in Nevada, the next state to vote. But she has only 30 staffers in a state where her rivals have had at least twice as many and that, because it uses a caucus, rewards advance preparation. She has not even begun to move into the Super Tuesday states.