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#FEELTHEBERN MARCHES ON

At this time two weeks ago, Bernie Sanders’ Democratic presidential nomination campaign was riding high after a virtual tie in Iowa, a massive victory over Clinton in New Hampshire, impressive showings at the Democratic debates and town halls, reigning in some key endorsements, and was starting to show strong signs of support in the next two contests in Nevada and South Carolina. A lot can change in two weeks, as we’ve seen, and Sanders’ campaign is definitely no longer enjoying the high it was on. A hotly contested but disappointing defeat in Nevada saw Sanders’ momentum start to disappear and had to turn to damage control headed towards a sure-fire defeat in South Carolina.

Coming off the Democratic debate in Milwaukee on Feb. 11th, Sanders momentum continued to build as he landed key endorsements from Vermont senator Harry Belafonte, Georgia state senator Vincent Fort, who had previously endorsed Clinton, and Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s former secretary of labor. Moreover, heading into Nevada, Sanders continued to close the distance between him and Clinton in the national polls with an NBC News poll reporting 50% support for Clinton and 40% for Sanders, the best mark to date for Sanders.

As the campaign turned its sights to the state of Nevada, the focus for Sanders was to try and breakthrough in what was thought to be a stronghold of the Clinton campaign. A month ago before the primary calendar officially got under way Clinton had a substantial 25% margin lead over Sanders in Nevada and the final polling heading into the caucus had them at a virtual tie. Unfortunately for Sanders, once the results for Nevada started coming in, Clinton managed to save her campaign from further damage with a 52.6% to 47.3% victory. The Nevada result serves big blow to the Sanders campaign, especially with the next date on the calendar being the primary in South Carolina which looked like it would be to Clinton what New Hampshire was for Sanders.

Sanders’s demise in Nevada seemed to be tied to his inability to tap into the massive support Clinton has among Hispanic and African American voters which are much more prevalent in Nevada and many of the upcoming primaries and caucuses than Iowa and New Hampshire. Sanders went as far as to meet with prominent African American leader, Reverend Al Sharpton, to try and secure his endorsement. This issue featured prominently in the South Carolina primary with a large Democrat contingent of African American voters. After Nevada, Sanders was criticised for looking at South Carolina as a write off for his campaign and looking past it to Super Tuesday on Mar. 1st. Sanders had to defend his position and continue to campaign in the state despite the fact that he probably would not win.

And he was right. On Feb. 27th, the Democratic primary was held in South Carolina, and as expected Hillary Clinton won by a considerable margin. While Sanders was able to capture the majority of support from white Democratic voters, Clinton had the edge in African American voters and propelled her to a landslide victory of 80% to Sanders’ 20%. Sanders was quick to put the South Carolina loss behind and focus on Super Tuesday.

How much damage the losses in Nevada and South Carolina caused Sanders’ campaign will be seen almost immediately as Super Tuesday is just three days after the South Carolina primary. Sanders has pledged to go the distance against Clinton but will need to have a strong showing on Super Tuesday in order to keep the Democratic presidential nomination race from a being a foregone conclusion long before it’s over. By this time in two weeks, there will be twenty states/territories who have voted on the Democratic side and will likely seal the fate for Bernie Sanders 2016.

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