It is a truth universally acknowledged, as a campaign trail Jane Austen might have written, that a candidate lacking a small fortune early must be destined to want for support later on. Perhaps it is so — one of the more effectiveways to predict winners and losers in election season is to compare the contestants' bankrolls. Fundraising, more than anything else, measurable or not, is the political pundit's North Star.
For Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the money game is scheduled to be a losing one. He does not, like Hillary Clinton, have a super PAC dedicated to collecting unlimited sums of cash and putting them to use on his behalf. Even as Sanders does well with traditional fundraising, Clinton's operation and haul remain light-years ahead. If dollars decide this primary fight, Sanders will finish second- or even third-best.
Those are the caveats. Here is the argument: Sanders and Clinton are a whole lot closer than the conventional wisdom suggests. By definition, a wave is destined to crest and break. But the tides, belonging to an altogether more complicated science, promise new swells to follow the broken ones. The next rush could be considerably stronger, or it could flatten out. Here are five indicators suggesting the political currents are running in Sanders' favor:
For the first time this primary season, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has overtaken Hillary Clinton in early-voting New Hampshire, racing out to a seven-point advantage in a Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll released early Tuesday.
Sanders leads Clinton 44% to 37%, with Vice President Joe Biden, who is thought to be considering a bid, chalking up 9%, according to a survey of 442 likely Democratic voters. The survey provides a snapshot of Sanders' remarkable rise. In March, Clinton led with 44% to Sanders' 8%, meaning the new results represent a 43-point swing in only five months.
Speaking into a camera broadcasting live from a Washington, D.C., house party Wednesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders renewed his presidential campaign plea for a "political revolution." Income inequality, the corrosive effects of money in politics and, memories of his Netroots Nations meltdown in mind, the death of Sandra Bland featured prominently in the address, which the campaign said reached "100,000 supporters" attending "more than 3,500 organizing meetings in all 50 states across the country."
The Vermont independent's energetic upstart bid has enjoyed a steady climb in the polls and the spectacle of thousands of supporters packing convention halls and hotel ballrooms from New Hampshire to Texas to see the candidate deliver his stem-winding stump speech.
In New York City, about 300 devotees gathered at a bar called The Royal near Union Square to chat, cheer and share their personal information with volunteers dispatched to collect names and email addresses for the campaign. Three supporters lined up outside with a long banner emblazoned with the familiar call to arms: #FeelTheBern.
Despite its impressive $15 million second-quarter fundraising haul, Sanders remains deeply reliant on the creativity and guile of seasoned outside organizers. "People for Bernie," the group in charge of organizing Wednesday night's gathering in New York, occasionally coordinates with the candidate's team but operates on its own, as its founders insist, to advance and empower its own members.
The Wednesday night meet-up enjoyed a lively opening act, with an emcee cajoling attendees to take the stage and make the case for "Bernie." When no one took the opportunity, she asked for them to bark out their prized issues. All but "repeal the Second Amendment" were met with rowdy cheers (Sanders has a mixed record on gun control issues). READ MORE
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is bringing the "fight for 15" to Capitol Hill.
Flanked by high-ranking members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Democratic presidential candidate on Wednesday introduced new legislation to more than double the federal minimum wage from $7.25, where it has remained since 2009, to $15 an hour by 2020.
"In the richest country on the face of the earth, no one who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty," Sanders said, calling the current rate a "starvation wage." The proposal would also close "the loophole that allows employers to pay tipped workers a shamefully low $2.13 an hour," he said.
Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) are the lead sponsors of a companion bill arriving in the House of Representatives. In the upper chamber, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is co-sponsoring the legislation.
Bernie Sanders has spent the past month climbing in the early primary polls and delivering his stump speech tooverflow crowds in town halls and school gymnasiums from New Hampshire to Nevada. But even as the independent senator from Vermont builds momentum on the ground and in the bank — he's already raised $8.3 million in mostly small donations — there is no place more energized and passionate about his campaign than the Internet. On social media, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is being run in reverse: Supporters lavish the same kind of attention on Sanders' every tweet or Facebook post that the network news broadcasts typically devote to Hillary Clinton's daily grind. To get at why, Mic posed two simple questions to the truest believers: How did you first hear about Bernie Sanders, and what do you think sets him apart from all the other candidates? Their answers — more than 1,600 in a little more than 24 hours — ranged from deeply drawn-out laundry lists of Sanders' pet issues to personal stories to loud-and-proud arguments attesting to his unique political substance. The Sanders phenomenon might be new to national press, but the senator has been forging and fortifying his ties to the progressive activist community for decades. His early success is less a "surge" than the natural progression of slow-building wave Sanders hopes will crest inland — in Iowa, perhaps? — as the first contest of the primary season begins early next year.More than 5,000 supporters turned out for Sanders' first campaign rally, on May 26, in Burlington, Vermont. Source: Christian Mazza/Mic For now, the real strength of Sanders' support seems to lie in the trust he inspires among potential voters. Though many expressed admiration for Clinton, the idea that Sanders is "different from all the other candidates" popped up over and again. This aligns with the most recent polling from Bloomberg, which finds Sanders with a significant lead over the "frontrunner" on the question of authenticity. In New Hampshire and Iowa, Sanders leads Clinton by 12 and 17 points, respectively. Still, the numbers can leave you cold. The responses to our unscientific survey will not. Here are the "Sanderistas" in their own words: He speaks a very harsh truth to the powerful on Wall Street... Walt Burnham: "Bernie Sanders has been telling the same truths about corporate malfeasance, banks, Wall Street, education, equal opportunity, the environment — for many years. He's been sneered at and dismissed by the corporate shills in Congress all the while but he has never wavered or been cowed by their arrogance. HE STRIKES ME AS A SINCERELY HONEST PERSON, a true rarity in politics. He has an appropriately feisty nature." Source: MCT/Getty Images
... and he doesn't stop speaking until he's good and ready.
Colleen Kennedy: "Sanders was the keynote at the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit this year. My job as a volunteer was to make sure his speech didn't run past his allotted time slot, and I was provided signs to hold up to him so he would know when to stop. He filibustered for 17 extra minutes and pointed right at my face as he did it.
It was the most magical thing that ever happened to me."
The message in those speeches is consistent and passionate...
Beth Sarver: "His energy is gruff yet kind, honest and takes no bullshit. His ideas are sound and resonate with me deeply. He is consistent and sassy and he is communicating honestly about one of the most important aspect of politics, engaged citizenry. The only way that he will win, is if all of us engage and do our part by voting and investing our creative capitol in improving this nation for all people.
There is not one other candidate that inspires me at all."
... and it's not an act — he's the same on the campaign trail as he is visiting a college class.
Jordan Dixon: "I first heard Bernie speak in my "Race Relations in the United States" class at the University of Vermont. I remember thinking 'Wow, this congressman is taking time out of his schedule to talk to a bunch of first year students?' He showed me that a politician doesn't have to be the stereotype we've always seen: spewing what they think we want to hear but remaining distant and detached from their constituents, only focused on where the money comes from and staying in their seat of power."
In difficult or politically sensitive moments, Sanders is honest about his feelings...
Jackie Kabanda: "After the Charlestown shootings, others expressed sadness but talked about not really knowing what happened or why. Bernie cut through the noise to name it what it was: racism. And specifically, racism not just expressed by one violent individual, but a systemic problem in the country today. No euphemism, no dancing around it. You can't address or solve a problem without naming it.
That's when I knew he was different, for the better."
... even if that means he needs to bail on young visitors to return to work.
Peter Huffman: "I had a meeting with Bernie Sanders as a high schooler at his office in the Capitol. What set him apart from the other big name politicians that I met was that he wasn't 'sugary sweet' and he didn't try to pretend that he wasn't busy. He was all business. He talked with us, connected as a human being, and explained that we, as a nation, were in the middle of a huge crisis (the debt crisis of Summer '11) and that he needed to get back to the floor."
His consistency and fiery style has built new trust among disillusioned voters...
Eddy Tingles: "Even as someone far from Bernie on the political spectrum, he's literally the only candidate I trust. I like Rand's libertarian politics but his willingness to cater to the mainstream at the expense of his values puts him behind Bernie. I first heard about Bernie on the internet a few months before he started talking about a presidential run, and he just seems like a real straight shooter."
... and strikes a serious contrast with candidates who have wavered on big issues.
Scott Novak: "My boyfriend and I are huge Bernie Sanders supporters. Unlike Clinton, Bernie has been standing up for LGBT Americans for years now. Notably, he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Clinton administration signed into law. I first heard about Bernie after the 2008 financial crisis when he called out the big banks for their crimes, and I have admired him ever since."
But there is one question:
Drew Martin: "Bernie has been our collective conscience for many years now. The question is, do we have the courage to vote for him?"
If those latest polls out of the early voting states are any indication, Democrats have become increasingly willing to consider the prospect. With more than seven months until the first caucus-goers begin lining up at schoolhouses and election halls across Iowa, one thing seems inarguably clear: If Sanders doesn't win, he won't be able to blame the Internet.
A new Bloomberg poll out of Iowa shows the independent senator from Vermont closing the gap on Hillary Clinton, with Clinton falling to 50% support among likely Democratic caucus-goers as Sanders jumps to 24%. That margin represents a 16-point bounce from the 42-point gulf that existed between the candidates in early June.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, said Thursday his campaign has raised $6 million dollars in small donations since entering the race on April 30.
"I think we have gotten over 150,000 individual donations" at an average take of "$40 a piece," Sanders said in aninterview on PBS' Charlie Rose. He expects the total haul to reach $10 million by the end of June. Candidates are not required to file official financial disclosure forms until July 15.
Sanders has doubled his donor base and war chest after jumping out to a quick start in the first four days of the campaign, in which his campaign netted $3 million from 75,000 supporters.
Bernie Sanders Raised $6 Million From Small Donors in the First Six Weeks of His Campaign By Gregory Krieg Hillary Clinton, who declared her candidacy two months ago, has pulled in $13 million from fundraising events, according to Politico. That figure does not include online donations, and doesn't account for the cash being swept up by her affiliated super PAC, Priorities USA, which can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy donors. READ MORE
The "Run Warren Run" campaign announced Tuesday it will suspend its efforts to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) into the 2016 presidential race, whose constant insistence that she has no interest in running for president seems to have finally taken hold. And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is already showing signs he wants to recruit the campaign's 365,000 supporters into backing his own bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
On Tuesday, Sanders called the executive director of Democracy for America, which partnered with MoveOn to oversee the Run Warren Run campaign, after it announced its decision to suspend operations. News of the call was first reported by the Hill, which noted that neither front-runner Hillary Clinton nor former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley had been in touch with the group.
Sanders "congratulated DFA members and the whole team on what we did with the Run Warren Run campaign — not just building this campaign to get Warren in the race, but building a movement of folks around the country who are committed to seeing Warren's populist progressive message at the very center of the 2016 debate," Neil Sroka, Democracy for America's communications director, told Mic.
Sanders' appeal as a presidential candidate has tripled in recent months in the crucial caucus state of Iowa, but in order to close the daunting gap between himself and Clinton he will need considerable organizational firepower — undoubtedly something that was on his mind when he reached out to Democracy for America. At the moment, the group is making no commitments. The Sanders campaign declined to comment when reached by Mic.
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