Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, once considered a long-shot (or even fringe) presidential candidate, surprised the media (and even himself) when his poll numbers surged earlier this year. The self-described Democratic Socialist forced Hillary Clinton‘s campaign to move to the left–an accomplishment many seem happy to dub his one and only.
But Sanders remains competitive. He trails Clinton by a few points in both Iowa and New Hampshire, but polling numbers are hardly omniscient predictors of the Iowa caucus. In fact, history demonstrates that the results often defy what most people expect based on political polling and general punditry. Just look at what happened last time around: Barack Obama, a candidate with no built-in name recognition, defeated the pre-coronated Clinton in the battleground state and went on to win the primary and, ultimately, the presidency.
For this reason, and ones we assume only the Sanders campaign can really see, everybody in Bernie’s camp seems pretty confident about their chances come Feb 1.
“We have really built the infrastructure and have access to the resources which will allow us to go toe to toe with our Democratic competitors all the way to the convention next summer,” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told reporters, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sanders himself seems pretty at ease about the whole thing. “I don’t want to get Secretary Clinton nervous,” he said, “but I think we’re going to win here in Iowa.”
Time will tell if he’s correct.
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