It’s been a good month for Sen. Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail as he now leads the Democratic pack in fundraising, the latest poll and cable news ratings.
A new Emerson poll finds Bernie Sanders leads the Democratic presidential race nationally with 29%, followed by Joe Biden at 24%, Pete Buttigieg at 9%, Kamala Harris at 8%, Beto O’Rourke at 8% and Elizabeth Warren at 7%.
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Also interesting: “If Joe Biden decides not to run, Bernie Sanders looks to be the early beneficiary, picking up 31% of Bidens’ voters.
Buttigieg gets 17% of the Biden vote, followed by O’Rourke at 13%.
Last night, Sanders participated in a Fox News town-hall event that was the most-watched town-hall event of the 2020 campaign thus far.
According to early Nielsen data, more than 2.5 million viewers tuned in to hear Sanders.
The prior town-hall ratings record for the 2020 cycle was a CNN-hosted event with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), which drew 1.95 million total viewers.
Sanders entered the Fox’s den — and he not only survived the hour-long encounter, but often dominated.
Located smack dab in the middle of Trump Country, the Democratic presidential front-runner played the part, swatting down tough questions from the hosts about health care, defense spending, and his newfound wealth.
At one point, the Vermont senator even led the network’s audience in a call-and-response that found them cheering loudly for his policies.
In response, Trump chided Fox News for its town hall event with Sanders, as well as its addition of former interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile.
So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2019
Trump’s fondness for Fox News is well documented.
He regularly tweets out quotes from guests on various Fox shows, is known to have a close relationship with host Sean Hannity, and his administration has hired multiple former network employees.
But Trump has in recent weeks chastised the network for some of its programming and personnel decisions.
Sanders’s campaign started the 2020 race wondering whether the small-donor fundraising base that powered his rise when he ran against Clinton in 2016 would remain enthusiastic now that he is in a more crowded field of contenders.
So far, it seems the answer is yes.
Sanders raised easily the most of any Democrat in the race so far, with $18.1 million.
And 84 percent of that fundraising is from small donations (meaning, it’s in “unitemized” contributions of $200 or less).
Indeed, Sanders’s small donor haul of $15.2 million nearly triples that of any other Democrat.
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke came next behind him with $5.5 million (though he only entered the race near the end of the quarter).
Sanders, who has made income inequality a hallmark of his presidential campaign, earned with his wife about $566,000 last year and $1.15 million in 2017, putting them in the nation’s highest income brackets.
Much of Sanders’s income came from books he has written about his democratic socialist platform, which includes a call for higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Now, some Democrats are beginning to ask how do they thwart a 70-something candidate from outside the party structure who is immune to intimidation or incentive and wields support from an unwavering base, without simply reinforcing his ‘the establishment is out to get me’ message — the same grievance Trump used to great effect?
At this point, stopping Sanders, or at least preventing a contentious convention, could prove difficult for Democrats.
Sanders is competing in a dense Democratic primary field that includes former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Sec. Julian Castro, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Gov. Jay Inslee, and Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Rep. Tim Ryan.