Campaign

The Hill’s Campaign Report: Democrats reckon with Sanders’s rise

by Jonathan Easley,Max Greenwood and Julia Manchester - 02/24/20 5:25 PM ET

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.

We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail.

LEADING THE DAY:

Can Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defeat President Trump?

That’s the primary question on the minds of Democrats after Sanders romped through Nevada to cement his status as the front-runner in the race to win the party’s nomination.

Sanders’s rivals are warning in stark terms that putting a Democratic socialist at the top of the ticket will hand Trump a second term and potentially cost Democrats their majority in the House.

Here’s what Dan Kanninen, the states director for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s campaign told reporters on a conference call this morning:

“It’s important for us to understand that if we choose a candidate in this critical election who appeals to a small base, like Sen. Sanders, it would be a fatal error against a candidate as strong as Donald Trump… It will not bring the kind of broad coalition of voters we need to the polls and critical House seats could flip Republican, risking our ability to keep the House and eliminate any chance of flipping the Senate. Democrats have to nominate somebody who can not only beat Donald Trump, but can surely win up and down the ballot.”

But Sanders’s team can point to national polls that show the Vermont senator leading Trump and running as strong against him as any of the other candidates in the field.

They believe fears over Sanders’s electoral strength are unfounded and that he’ll bring the energized base and message about economic anxiety to match Trump and win back key Midwest states that went red in 2016 for the first time in decades.

That message appears to be resonating among Democrats as Sanders racks up impressive primary wins.

The latest Morning Consult poll found 34 percent of Democrats view Sanders as having the best shot at defeating Trump, against 23 percent for Bloomberg, the next closest candidate.

READ MORE:

The Hill’s Amie Parnes has the inside look on Biden’s campaign heading into South Carolina. The bottom line: It’s now or never.

FROM THE TRAIL:

A FLORIDA TABOO: Sanders came under fire from Florida lawmakers and politicos on Monday after praising aspects of the Cuban revolution that put the country under the control of Fidel Castro. In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” the Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist said that it was “unfair to say everything is bad” in post-revolutionary Cuba, pointing to Castro’s implementation of a “literacy program” after taking power. “Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?” Sanders asked. A word of warning: If there’s one thing you don’t do in Florida politics it’s say anything even remotely in defense of Castro, the dictator who reigned over the island for roughly 50 years — and Florida Democrats let Sanders know it.

Saying a murderous dictator wasn’t so bad because of a literacy program is like saying “there were very fine people, on both sides” https://t.co/EqRUpKGa3Z

— Annette Taddeo (She/Her/Ella) (@Annette_Taddeo) February 24, 2020

.@SenSanders comments on Fidel Castro are ill-informed & insulting to thousands of Floridians. Castro was a murderous dictator who oppressed his own people. His “literacy program” wasn’t altruistic; it was a cynical effort to spread his dangerous philosophy & consolidate power.

— Stephanie Murphy (@SMurphyCongress) February 24, 2020

Here is @BernieSanders TONIGHT defending Fidel Castro’s murderous totalitarian Communist regime in Cuba

Democrats, nominating this man will absolutely re-elect @realDonaldTrump and end our Constitutional republic. pic.twitter.com/vAJX2ffbSQ

— Fernand R. Amandi (@AmandiOnAir) February 24, 2020

Fidel Castro left a dark legacy of forced labor camps, religious repression, widespread poverty, firing squads, and the murder of thousands of his own people.

But sure, Bernie, let’s talk about his literacy program. pic.twitter.com/3Xqu435uoA

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 24, 2020

Bloomberg’s campaign says that Sanders shoulders at least part of the blame for an act of vandalism at one of its offices in Chicago, The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports. Bloomberg’s campaign office in the Windy City was spray-painted with the word “oligarch,” a term that Sanders and his allies have used to describe the former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman. In a statement, Bloomberg’s campaign acknowledged that it did not know who committed the act but said that the use of the term oligarch echoed the language used by Sanders. “While we do not know who is directly responsible, we do know Senator Bernie Sanders and his campaign have repeatedly invoked this language, and the word ‘oligarch’ specifically when discussing Mike Bloomberg and his campaign,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said. He added: “Sen. Sanders’ refusal to denounce these illegal acts is a sign of his inability to lead, and his willingness to condone and promote Trump-like rhetoric has no place in our politics.”

PERSPECTIVES:

Brad Bannon: Sanders’s victory in Nevada was big and broad.

Allan Lichtman: Why Sanders is electable.

Sean Trende: Unthinkability bias comes for the Democrats.

Jelani Cobb: How did the Democrats end up here?

Anand Giridharadas: A wake-up moment for the Democratic establishment.

FROM CONGRESS AND THE STATES:

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, endorsed Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) in his primary race against Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) on Monday, providing Collins with key conservative backing in the heated battle for the GOP Georgia Senate nomination. The Hill’s JulieGrace Brufke reports.

POLL WATCH:

Public Policy Polling survey of South Carolina:

Biden: 36 percent

Sanders: 21 percent

Warren: 8 percent

Buttigieg: 7 percent

Steyer: 7 percent

Gabbard: 6 percent

Klobuchar: 3 percent

University of Houston survey of the Texas, a Super Tuesday state:

Biden: 22.5 percent

Sanders: 22.1 percent