Bernie Sanders emerges as early frontrunner as Democrats line up to announce for 2020 race

By Molly Prince

ndependent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is kicking off his campaign for the presidency as the leading candidate for the Democratic ticket in 2020.

Sanders announced on Tuesday that he will be officially launching a bid for the presidency to continue the “political revolution” that he began in 2016.

He has been consistently polling as the top contender behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to reveal his presidential aspirations. Of the candidates who have officially entered the race, Sanders has been leading the pack for months.

Real Clear Politics (graph The Daily Caller News Foundation)

Source: Real Clear Politics, Graphic by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The self-proclaimed democratic socialist is significantly ahead in the polls compared to his fellow presidential hopefuls, according to Real Clear Politics’ average of polls. Sanders is nearly seven points ahead of Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris on average and nine points ahead of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Sanders unsuccessfully ran a 2016 presidential campaign as a Democrat. Although his run was initially considered a long-shot bid, Sanders won 23 primaries and caucuses. He also won more than 45 percent of pledged delegates, compared to challenger Hillary Clinton’s 54 percent.

Sanders is no longer an unknown candidate; he has a ready-made network of staff and volunteers and maintains a loyal grass-roots organization across the country. However, he faces an extensive playing field that has largely veered to the progressive left.

Sanders has a proven capacity to generate enormous campaign donations, particularly with small-dollars, which was highlighted during his previous run. His fundraising ability was further demonstrated by a massive influx of campaign cash hours after his 2020 announcement. A spokesperson for Sanders revealedthat the campaign raised more than $1 million in less than four hours on Tuesday and $3.3 million by the day’s end.

Comparatively, Harris took in $1.5 million in24 hours and Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar hit the $1 million mark in 48 hours.

The Vermont senator disclosed in November 2018he will “probably” run for president if another candidate does not emerge who is more likely to beat President Donald Trump in 2020. But Sanders and his advisers have been meeting as far back as December to begin laying the foundation for an even more expansive campaign than he had during his first presidential run.

“This time, he starts off as a front-runner, or one of the front-runners,” Sanders’ 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver said in December. “It’ll be a much bigger campaign if he runs again, in terms of the size of the operation.”

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Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

4 thoughts on “Bernie Sanders emerges as early frontrunner as Democrats line up to announce for 2020 race

  1. Bernie, the accomplished do nothing Senator. He’s a great pied piper that knows how to generate money with all his raving BS. He doesn’t care if he wins or loses the nomination for either way he fattens his pockets for his retirement. The fools that buy into his rhetoric will never learn. As long as he offers up all his socialist freebies, the flock will follow. Mindless fools..

  2. Bernie Sanders is delusional, or he’s on drugs….but he’s from VT so he must be on drugs. It doesn’t make any difference which extreme liberal socialist (the democrats have lost control of their party and apparently don’t have the stones to take it back) gets the nomination. President Trump, with his success at turning our economy around, will eat them alive. I can hardly wait to watch the debate circus.

  3. Enjoy it while you can Bernie, by the time reality sets in you’ll be sleeping !!

    The sharks in this pool of fools are going to eat Socialist Sanders up quicker
    than ” Pantsuit “Hillary did …………..

    I wonder what ” The Berns ” bonus will be this time for bowing out ??

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