Bernie Sanders Announces Bid for 2020 Presidential Election

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By Austin Stadie

Even with Election Day well over a year away, nearly a dozen Democrats, including the likes of Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Cory Booker, have already declared for the party’s primary. Bernie Sanders, one of America’s most popular, and well-recognized politicians announced in an early morning email on February 19 that he is ready to run for the second time.

With his announcement came a lot of excitement from his supporters, with Sanders raising a record-setting $6 million in the 24 hours following, all from over 220,000 individual small donors. A large part of his campaign in 2016 was the fact that he only took money from individuals and not corporations, something he seems to be continuing this time around.

Bernie was widely unknown before his decision to run against Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley in 2016. This is where he gained an astronomical amount of attention, leading one of the largest grassroots campaigns in U.S. history. Sanders ultimately ended up losing to Hillary Clinton, but he has steadily remained in the spotlight over the last four years.

The first time around, Sanders was incredibly popular when it came to the younger demographics, pulling in more votes from people under 30 than both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined. With these people growing old, and younger adults becoming old enough to vote, Bernie is looking at a really promising shot at the presidency.

A huge concern for many people, aside from his age, is the tag he and now many freshman congresspeople champion: Democratic Socialist. Sanders would be largely unlike any president the United States has ever had, with maybe the exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Much of his vision includes massive changes that many Americans may not be ready for. This includes objectives like Medicare for All, make community college tuition-free, eliminate tuition at four-year universities for students from families with income of $125,000 or less, and a $15/hr minimum wage, just to name a few.

These ideas have become a lot less radical since the last election, but they still turn off a large portion of voters in the United States. Whether or not Sanders will be able to sell his vision to the older crowd is going to be interesting to see, but current polling numbers indicate that the 2020 General Election will likely be Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.