On Politics With Lisa Lerer: Can Bernie Still Lead Bernie’s Movement?

After shifting the Democratic Party to the left, Bernie Sanders could struggle to beat a crop of fresh-faced candidates who support many of the policies he championed. [Trouble seeing this email? View in browser]( [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( February 19, 2019 | Evening Edition [Lisa Lerer] Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host. [Senator Bernie Sanders announced his second presidential bid.] Senator Bernie Sanders announced his second presidential bid. Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock Do you remember the old days of the Democratic Party? Universal health care was controversial. Boasting about taxing the rich was political suicide. And socialism was a dirty word. It was a different time. It was three years ago. In 2016, Bernie Sanders started a "revolution,” as he liked to say, testing the bounds of what liberal Democrats believed could win national support. As he [embarks on his second presidential bid]( though, the question for voters is whether he’s still the guy to lead it. Mr. Sanders certainly thinks he is. “Now it’s time to complete that revolution and to take that vision and implement it into reality,” he said this morning in an [interview]( with CBS News, shortly after he officially entered the race. When asked how this campaign would be different from his last, Mr. Sanders responded, “We’re going to win.” But it may not be that simple. Though we refer to elections as “races,” the term isn’t quite right. A presidential campaign isn’t a 10K fun run; you don’t win just because you get there first. You win when you match the moment. Mr. Sanders enters the contest with some significant advantages. He is the only candidate in the field who has run for president before, meaning he has spent time on a national debate stage, built operations in early primary states and dealt with national scrutiny. And he [boasts a list]( of more than two million donors, a roster that is six times as large as any other candidate’s. Less than four hours after he made his announcement today, his campaign said, he had pulled in $1.2 million in donations. ADVERTISEMENT But that may be where the advantages end. Four years ago, Mr. Sanders positioned himself as the underdog against Hillary Clinton, a liberal alternative to a politician carrying hefty baggage from a lifetime in party politics. Now he will face a crowded field of fresh-faced candidates, including some of his past supporters. Two Democrats who endorsed him, Representative Tulsi Gabbard and the spirituality author Marianne Williamson, are running for president. Senator Jeff Merkley, the only senator to back Mr. Sanders in 2016, is himself weighing a bid. He can’t even count on the support of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who worked as an organizer in his 2016 campaign but has said she is unlikely to endorse anyone in the 2020 race. And when it comes to policy, it seems Mr. Sanders is a victim of his own success. Most of the candidates running in 2020 have embraced his signature “Medicare for all” legislation and plans to raise taxes on the ultrarich. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who shares supporters with Mr. Sanders, is beating him to economic policies that should fall firmly in his domain. Even public opinion on socialism is becoming more positive. An often underrated piece of Mr. Sanders’s success in 2016 was that he faced a fraction of the attacks that he could have on his past and positions. The Clinton campaign felt he had no real chance of winning and did not want to risk alienating their left flank by really going after him. That’s not going to happen this time around, when Mr. Sanders enters the campaign in the top tier. Already, Mr. Sanders has faced new scrutiny, fielding questions about [gender bias on his past campaign]( his [struggles with minority voters]( and his age — something Mr. Sanders almost never discussed in his race against the 68-year-old Mrs. Clinton. He would be 79 years old when he entered the White House. In 2016, the toughest questions Mr. Sanders faced were about the political future he envisioned. Now, he’s the one answering for his past. [[Read the full story on Bernie Sanders’s entrance into the 2020 race]( and [see where he stands on the issues]( Drop us a line! We want to hear from our readers. Have a question? We’ll try to answer it. Have a comment? We’re all ears. Email us at [onpolitics@nytimes.com](mailto:onpolitics@nytimes.com?te=1&nl=politics&emc=edit_cn_2019021920190219). ____________________ A new vote in North Carolina? [Mark Harris, the Republican candidate in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, and his lawyer David Freedman.] Mark Harris, the Republican candidate in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, and his lawyer David Freedman. Ethan Hyman/Associated Press Remember North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District? A quick refresher: Officials are investigating whether L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a contractor for the Republican Mark Harris’s campaign, may have been involved in tampering with absentee ballots. State officials refused to certify the vote, which Mr. Harris appeared to win by a narrow margin, and the House seat remains empty. There may soon be a resolution. This week the North Carolina State Board of Elections is holding hearings on the matter, and it will ultimately decide whether there will be a new vote. Alan Blinder has been covering the story for The Times, and he [wrote a guide]( for those looking to catch up. Here’s an abridged version: What’s the standard to trigger a new election? The elections board has the power to order a new vote if it finds that “irregularities or improprieties occurred to such an extent that they taint the results of the entire election and cast doubt on its fairness.” The state board has five members — three Democrats and two Republicans — and it takes four members to call a new election. Will there be criminal charges? Maybe. The board can send any findings to prosecutors, some of whom have already been investigating irregularities. What can Congress do about all of this? Under the Constitution, the House is “the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members,” and Congress could eventually determine that November’s balloting was compromised. A formal refusal by Congress to seat a prospective member from the Ninth District would lead to a new election. What has happened in the hearings so far? On Monday, the elections board’s executive director said that investigators had concluded there had been “a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme” during the 2018 election. Mr. Dowless’s stepdaughter was among the day’s witnesses, and she testified that she had personally collected ballots — a violation of state law — and that people working for Mr. Dowless had sometimes filled in incomplete ballots. Through his lawyer, Mr. Dowless declined to testify. And today, the chief strategist for Mr. Harris’s campaign, Andy Yates, took the stand and said he had not known of any wrongdoing by Mr. Dowless. Mr. Harris could still be asked to testify. Read the latest story from Alan: [In North Carolina, Investigators Find Ballot ‘Scheme’ in House Race]( ____________________ What to read tonight • For the first time, the Vatican has confirmed to The Times that it has [secret guidelines for what to do when priests break celibacy vows and father children](. • McKinsey & Company, the world’s most prestigious consulting firm, has a mostly hidden $12.3 billion hedge fund. [A Times investigation examines the potential for conflicts of interest between the fund’s investments and the advice the firm sells to clients.]( • Did you know that Cory Booker is vegan? He talks about his history with a plant-based diet (and some of his favorite places to eat) in [this interview with the vegan website VegNews](. ____________________ … Seriously “I’m just trying to get some ranch.” [A hero is born at a Kirsten Gillibrand event in Iowa.]( (Of course, [there’s a recipe for that]( _____________________ Were you forwarded this newsletter? 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