The Bernie Faithful Wait For A 2020 Signal
Bernie Sanders
The same early juncture in the election cycle is now facing Clinton's primary challenger  Bernie Sanders  a candidate who in 2015 launched his campaign in the span of a couple months and is considered a frontrunner in the next election. The 75-year-old Vermont senator  current and former aides said in recent interviews  has the chance to build a formidable organization with the kind of infrastructure his first campaign lacked.
Earlier this month  he returned to the key caucus state of Iowa for the first time since the election to speak to a 1 100 progressive activists in Des Moines. At a daylong conference  Revolution Iowa  organizers and volunteers from the 2016 campaign reunited over boxes lunches and at workshops like “The Fight for Our Lives: Medicare for All!”  Sanders  is scheduled to make a second trip to the state in late August to promote  his  new book.
Around  Sanders   former aides and advisers point to other signs of activity.
On the Democratic National Committee’s Unity Commission  a group created by the  Sanders  and Clinton campaigns to review the fairness of the nominating process  the senator’s allies  led by former campaign manager Jeff Weaver  have eyed changes to superdelegates  open primaries  and the voting calendar that could benefit  Sanders . (Weaver  disputing that idea  said the commission is focused on changes that would help non-leading  lesser-known candidates “get a fair hearing and maybe win.”  Sanders    he  noted  “would enter as a leading candidate  if not the frontrunner.”)
“Many of us are out here waiting for a signal from him ” said Longabaugh  who  along with Tad Devine  another top adviser  put together the early blueprint for the  Sanders  campaign in spring 2015. “My sense is that's sort of where Sanders Nation is.”
 Sanders  unquestionably built  his  “political revolution” on the strength of  his  message  not the kind of calculated mechanics that laid the foundation for the Clinton operation in Brooklyn. Still  some backers said  the campaign also suffered from basic structural and tactical work that  the senator  not only came late to  but at points actively resisted.
The nuts-and-bolts planning for a  Sanders  campaign began in March 2015  shortly before  his  April 30 announcement. In 2014  the liberal radio host Bill Press had hosted  Sanders  at  his  Washington home to talk over the decision to run with Senate staffers  senior Democrats  and strategists  along with “wise guys and gals who pontificated a lot ” recalled Longabaugh. “Helpful for  Bernie  and [ his  wife] Jane to hear — but it was not planning.”
Less than four months into the race  in August 2015  senior advisers sat down with  Sanders  and  his  wife in Burlington to address the issue in blunt terms: If they wanted to compete  they needed a more serious operation — a campaign with proper infrastructure and a more robust travel schedule  even if it meant missing votes in the Senate  they told  him   according to a person briefed on the conversation at the time. In short  there were basic realities about running for president that would have to be accepted.
Even after the meeting  billed publicly by advisers as “phase two” of the campaign   Sanders  struggled with that adjustment.  He  had to be convinced that TV ads were not just effective but necessary  and that using a pollster did not mean putting a finger to the wind.  He  never hired a political director.  He  didn't see the need for middle management. Basic functions like a regional press operation weren't fully in place until the primaries had started. Structurally  they never caught up to Clinton. (One former aide described the problem as the ultimate double-edged sword: “The reason that he is a compelling candidate is the same reason he can’t be elected president.”)
For now   Sanders  is reluctant to engage on the subject of what's next.
On  his  recent trip to Iowa  when shouts of "2020" rang out from the crowd   Sanders   standing onstage or moving down the ropeline  remained expressionless. The topic can be a source of irritation for the former candidate  another distraction from the message.
The 2020 speculation adds to a somewhat disjointed political moment for  Sanders :  He  is navigating new terrain under President Trump  now as a key player in defending the Affordable Care Act even as  he  amplifies activists’ calls for a single-payer system;  he  is facing a federal investigation into  his  wife’s handling of bank loans for the shuttered Burlington College; and the group that was meant to be the vessel for  his  political movement  Our Revolution  has a struggled to rack up significant electoral wins.
Weaver  the former campaign manager and a longtime adviser who remains closer to  Sanders  than most  stepped down as the head of Our Revolution on July 15 and is now serving as the central spokesman for all matters related to the FBI inquiry  which  he  dismisses as a “media feeding frenzy.” (For some  the move signaled a certain level of concern  recalling the brief but intense period in late 2015 when Weaver took over communications in the aftermath of a data breach scandal.)
If  Sanders  decides to run a second time   he  would enter the Democratic field with a national committed following seen with few other politicians.
 Sanders   it often seems  exists both among the “brothers and sisters” of  his  movement — and from the distant remove of a celebrity with an enormous and awestruck following. (This spring  taking the stage at a rally in Las Vegas   he  approached the lectern and  in one swift movement  removed  his  dark blue blazer  handed it to a woman seated on the stage behind  him   and turned back to the mic  leaving the woman  blazer in hand and mouth agape  resisting a staffer’s reach when  he  tried to retrieve the jacket.)
Even as  he ’s become a new source of influence among the party’s elite  carving out a spot on Senate leadership and traveling via private jet on a DNC-sponsored “unity” tour earlier this year   his  standing as an antiestablishment figure remains unquestioned.
The same early juncture in the election cycle is now facing Clinton's primary challenger  [TGT]a candidate who in 2015 launched [TGT] campaign in the span of a couple months and is considered a frontrunner in the next election. The 75-year-old Vermont senator  current and former aides said in recent interviews  has the chance to build a formidable organization with the kind of infrastructure [TGT] first campaign lacked.
Earlier this month  [TGT] returned to the key caucus state of Iowa for the first time since the election to speak to a 1 100 progressive activists in Des Moines. At a daylong conference  Revolution Iowa  organizers and volunteers from the 2016 campaign reunited over boxes lunches and at workshops like “The Fight for Our Lives: Medicare for All!”  [TGT]is scheduled to make a second trip to the state in late August to promote  [TGT]  new book.
Around  Sanders   former aides and advisers point to other signs of activity.
On the Democratic National Committee’s Unity Commission  a group created by the  Sanders  and Clinton campaigns to review the fairness of the nominating process  the senator’s allies  led by former campaign manager Jeff Weaver  have eyed changes to superdelegates  open primaries  and the voting calendar that could benefit  [TGT] . (Weaver  disputing that idea  said the commission is focused on changes that would help non-leading  lesser-known candidates “get a fair hearing and maybe win.”  [TGT][TGT]  noted  “would enter as a leading candidate  if not the frontrunner.”)
“Many of us are out here waiting for a signal from [TGT] ” said Longabaugh  who  along with Tad Devine  another top adviser  put together the early blueprint for the  Sanders  campaign in spring 2015. “My sense is that's sort of where Sanders Nation is.”
 Sanders  unquestionably built  his  “political revolution” on the strength of  his  message  not the kind of calculated mechanics that laid the foundation for the Clinton operation in Brooklyn. Still  some backers said  the campaign also suffered from basic structural and tactical work that  the senator  not only came late to  but at points actively resisted.
The nuts-and-bolts planning for a  Sanders  campaign began in March 2015  shortly before  his  April 30 announcement. In 2014  the liberal radio host Bill Press had hosted  Sanders  at  his  Washington home to talk over the decision to run with Senate staffers  senior Democrats  and strategists  along with “wise guys and gals who pontificated a lot ” recalled Longabaugh. “Helpful for  Bernie  and [ his  wife] Jane to hear — but it was not planning.”
Less than four months into the race  in August 2015  senior advisers sat down with  Sanders  and  his  wife in Burlington to address the issue in blunt terms: If they wanted to compete  they needed a more serious operation — a campaign with proper infrastructure and a more robust travel schedule  even if it meant missing votes in the Senate  they told  him   according to a person briefed on the conversation at the time. In short  there were basic realities about running for president that would have to be accepted.
Even after the meeting  billed publicly by advisers as “phase two” of the campaign   Sanders  struggled with that adjustment.  He  had to be convinced that TV ads were not just effective but necessary  and that using a pollster did not mean putting a finger to the wind.  He  never hired a political director.  He  didn't see the need for middle management. Basic functions like a regional press operation weren't fully in place until the primaries had started. Structurally  they never caught up to Clinton. (One former aide described the problem as the ultimate double-edged sword: “The reason that he is a compelling candidate is the same reason he can’t be elected president.”)
For now   Sanders  is reluctant to engage on the subject of what's next.
On  his  recent trip to Iowa  when shouts of "2020" rang out from the crowd   Sanders   standing onstage or moving down the ropeline  remained expressionless. The topic can be a source of irritation for the former candidate  another distraction from the message.
The 2020 speculation adds to a somewhat disjointed political moment for  Sanders :  He  is navigating new terrain under President Trump  now as a key player in defending the Affordable Care Act even as  he  amplifies activists’ calls for a single-payer system;  he  is facing a federal investigation into  his  wife’s handling of bank loans for the shuttered Burlington College; and the group that was meant to be the vessel for  his  political movement  Our Revolution  has a struggled to rack up significant electoral wins.
Weaver  the former campaign manager and a longtime adviser who remains closer to  Sanders  than most  stepped down as the head of Our Revolution on July 15 and is now serving as the central spokesman for all matters related to the FBI inquiry  which  he  dismisses as a “media feeding frenzy.” (For some  the move signaled a certain level of concern  recalling the brief but intense period in late 2015 when Weaver took over communications in the aftermath of a data breach scandal.)
If  Sanders  decides to run a second time   he  would enter the Democratic field with a national committed following seen with few other politicians.
 Sanders   it often seems  exists both among the “brothers and sisters” of  his  movement — and from the distant remove of a celebrity with an enormous and awestruck following. (This spring  taking the stage at a rally in Las Vegas   he  approached the lectern and  in one swift movement  removed  his  dark blue blazer  handed it to a woman seated on the stage behind  him   and turned back to the mic  leaving the woman  blazer in hand and mouth agape  resisting a staffer’s reach when  he  tried to retrieve the jacket.)
Even as  he ’s become a new source of influence among the party’s elite  carving out a spot on Senate leadership and traveling via private jet on a DNC-sponsored “unity” tour earlier this year   his  standing as an antiestablishment figure remains unquestioned.