Sanders voters helped Trump win the White House. Could they do it again?

[SunSeeker]

Joe Biden isn't the only presidential candidate whose allies believe the votes of Bernie Sanders' most dedicated supporters could hold the key to his November success. President Donald Trump and his supporters believe the same.

In 2016, about 216,000 Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin voters backed the Vermont senator in the spring and Trump in the fall, according to an analysis of exit polling — well over twice the president's total margin of victory in those states, which were critical to his electoral vote win in the face of a decisive popular vote loss.

If Sanders ultimately falls short again this time around, Trump's allies hope history repeats itself with the senator's most disaffected supporters — but they won't be leaving that prospect to chance, with a targeted effort underway by groups who support Trump’s re-election to identify and target those voters.

Sanders voters in 2020 have indicated they are less likely than other voters to back the Democratic nominee should their candidate not win the nomination. In an NBC News exit poll taken on Super Tuesday, 15 percent of Sanders voters said they weren't committed to voting for the Democratic nominee, regardless of who it was, compared to 10 percent of Biden voters who said the same.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/sanders-voters-helped-trump-win-white-house-could-they-do-n1145306

[NurseJackie]

1. Sarandon, Moore, West, Turner, Sirota, Gray, Uygur... I'm sure they'll try.

[walkingman]

2. It might be that Biden voters help elect Trump by not voting if Bernie wins.

Things change quickly! I'm hoping whoever the candidate is defeats Trump resoundingly. Hard for me to imagine anyone voting for him.

[SiliconValley_Dem]

3. I actually don't think so

[PoliticAverse]

4. Makes the case that Sanders should be the nominee to prevent a repeat of 2016. n/t

[Ron Green]

5. And as a bonus, voters have a choice not just to reject Trump,

but to reject the economic policies of the past 40 years that have brought the stranglehold to so many people.

[SunSeeker]

10. I don't want to reject the ACA, neither do most people.

And I want to bring back the economic policies of the Obama administration that saved our economy, raised wages, and established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect us from predatory lenders. I think the majority of Americans do.

Bernie offering democratic socialism is not going to bring out the vote for him (it didn't in these primaries) but it will certainly fire up moderates and conservatives to come out and vote for Trump.

[SunSeeker]

8. Then why does Trump and Putin want Bernie to be the nominee?

So much so that Trump is sending encouraging tweets to Bernie to keep fighting and Putin has unleashed his troll army, as Bernie has acknowledged, to bash Biden and his supporters?

[PoliticAverse]

11. Despite what many people here seem to think Trump isn't completely stupid. What hurts Democrats most

is a nomination fight taken to the convention. That's the scenario that the Republicans would like the most.

[SunSeeker]

12. That too, but they want Bernie to be the nominee. Why do you think that is? nt

[PoliticAverse]

14. What makes you think Trump wants to run against Sanders?

Trump knows Sanders won't be the nominee. Again the point of pushing Sanders at all would be to have a nomination fight at the convention.

[SunSeeker]

15. Because he keeps egging him on with tweets.

And the GOP instituted Operation Chaos to get Republicans to vote for Sanders in the Dem primary.

It certainly looks like Sanders won't be the nominee now, but 2 weeks ago it looked like he would.

And Putin's trolls aren't letting up.

[PoliticAverse]

16. To anyone with a clue, it has never looked like Sanders would be the nominee.

Don't let Trump troll you.

Remember when "operation chaos" told people to vote for Hillary Clinton against Obama?

Again that was to force the nomination to go to a fight at the convention which is what weakens the Democratic nominee most.

[SunSeeker]

17. No, there was no similar push by the GOP for Hillary in 2008.

If Bernie never had a chance, why is he running to weaken our nominee? Sounds like you're saying Bernie is not one of those "with a clue."

[PoliticAverse]

18. Actually Rush Limbaugh repeatedly attempted to get Republicans to vote for Hillary in open primaries

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rush_Limbaugh_Show :

In late February 2008, Limbaugh announced "Operation Chaos," a political call to action with the initial plan to have voters of the Republican Party temporarily cross over to vote in the Democratic primary and vote for Hillary Clinton, who at the time was in the midst of losing eleven straight primary contests to Barack Obama. Limbaugh has also cited the open primary process in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, which allowed independent voters to cross over into the Republican primaries to choose John McCain over more conservative candidates (such as Fred Thompson), as an inspiration.

At the point in which Limbaugh announced his gambit, Obama had seemed on the verge of clinching the Democratic nomination. However, Clinton subsequently won the Ohio primary and the Texas primary (while losing the Texas caucus and the overall delegate split) with large pluralities from rural counties; thus reemerging as a competitive opponent in the race.

On April 29, 2008 Limbaugh declared an "operational pause" in Operation Chaos, saying that Obama's defeat in the 2008 Pennsylvania primary and fallout from statements from Obama ally Reverend Jeremiah Wright could have damaged his campaign to the extent superdelegates would shift to Clinton's side. Determining Obama had weathered that storm, Limbaugh lifted the pause the next day and renewed his call for his listeners to vote for Clinton in the upcoming Indiana and North Carolina primaries. Obama won the North Carolina primary but was narrowly defeated in Indiana, where Clinton won decisively in rural counties that normally vote Republican in presidential elections.

And yes, I would have have to say that Sanders is greatly overestimating his chance of winning the nomination.

[jcgoldie]

20. You are wrong

Trump is completely stupid.

[vercetti2021]

6. No

Joe's likability is higher than Hillary's was. Not dissing her or anything but years and years of GOP hate machine making her a boogeyman rotted independent brains. Add that people want Trump at really bad and the primary voter percentage is higher.

[Cha]

9. stein voters too.. like sirota, BJG, and turner..

Let's Hope Not!

[Sunlei]

13. surprised! 10% of Biden & 15% of Sanders voters said they weren't committed

perhaps this 25% of primary voters recently supported the dropped candidates. A couple of them did drop out all of a sudden with no word to their supporters.


My concern is the numbers of total voters who turned out for the primary, especially those who voted early. Rs had a huge primary turnout, Ds better vote in the general election.

[betsuni]

19. K&R