As Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., enters the 2020 presidential race, he’ll have to face a much different reality than he did during his first run: he no longer has a monopoly on Democratic socialism.
When he launched his long shot bid for the 2016 presidential nomination, he faced a much different field. One side was the runaway frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, who was the clear establishment choice for the nomination. The rest of the field was made up of a few other boring Democrats who never went anywhere.
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In 2020, Sanders will face a number of candidates who now share many of his views on free healthcare, debt-free college, job guarantees, and so on. Liberals who were trying to draft Warren in 2016 can now vote for her. They could also choose Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Cory Booker, D-N.J., or Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., all of whom signed on to his “Medicare for all” proposal as well as the Green New Deal.
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Put another way, in 2016, Sanders had the market all to himself, but after he enjoyed so much success and spawned a movement, many imitators flooded the market, and he no longer has exclusivity. That’s why he’ll likely go bust in 2020.
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.@SenSanders no longer has a monopoly on Democratic socialism@philipaklein https://t.co/7HSNeekrA7
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 19, 2019
Kamala Harris: "I am not a democratic socialist" https://t.co/TlL4yN4ksE pic.twitter.com/3cxfGppwRa
— The Hill (@thehill) February 19, 2019
In New Hampshire, Sen. Kamala Harris is asked if she'll need to move toward the "democratic socialist part of the party" to compete in the first-in-the-nation primary pic.twitter.com/XbnQsQiage
— POLITICO (@politico) February 19, 2019
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