US elections

Bernie Sanders’s path to the 2020 Democratic nomination, explained

This week, for the first time, the progressive senator from Vermont emerged in first place in a national CNN poll, showing him 3 points ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden, though within the margin of error. For months, Sanders has been hovering around 20 percent in the RealClearPolitics national polling average, but some good recent national and early-state polls are putting him on an upward trajectory.

If his campaign can turn out Iowa’s sizable Latino population and working-class voters, Sanders is bullish about winning the February 3 caucuses. That could shift the ground here in New Hampshire favorably for him — and with a robust operation in key Western states like Nevada and California, two decisive wins in the earliest states could put Sanders well on his way to the Democratic nomination.

Even more importantly, they could prove Sanders’s theory of winning elections: expanding the electorate and getting traditionally neglected groups to turn out. Some might call it a political revolution.