Bernie Sanders’ Team Flexes Confidence as Primary Gets More Crowded: ‘We Are Building This Campaign to Win’
If, last time, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was running to prove a point, this time he’s running to win. And on Monday, his campaign flexed its muscle for the rest of the field, as if to indicate that they view themselves as not just the best nominee but the likely one as well.
On a call with reporters, senior advisor Jeff Weaver, campaign manager Faiz Shakir and campaign pollster Ben Tulchin went through a variety of data points meant to underscore the strong position that the 77-year-old senator occupies in his primary campaign. Top among them was the revelation that the campaign had already hired roughly 70 staffers across the country in addition to the estimated million-plus volunteers. By contrast, in the summer of 2015, that number was fewer than 30.
That added staff, the Sanders’ campaign said, would allow it to aggressively compete in the first five voting states, with California included in that group, given how early the voting process in the state will begin. In the 2016 cycle, Sanders had basically limited himself to initially competing in Iowa and New Hampshire in hopes that strong finishes in those states would catapult him nationally, which they did.