Yeah, actually. This is mostly because his decades of consistent integrity has earned him a cult-like fanbase of rabid superfans. Don’t get me wrong, he’s earned it, but I’ve met a suprising amount of fans of his IRL who seemed totally ready to throw hands with me after I made the mistake of saying that AOC might be a decent successor to him. A fanbase like that means money. Not anywhere near as much as his peers, of course, but combine the money from rabid supporters with the fact that word of mouth is the best kind of marketing and you get a very affordable campaign.
Also, the fact he’s not playing the game his peers are means he doesn’t have the lifestyle inflation his peers suffer. He seems to live cheaply.
He represents Vermont, our second least populous state, with only about 650,000 residents, and 371,000 votes cast in the 2020 election.
For reference, Washington DC has a population of 690,000, and cast 346,000 votes.
Additionally, Sanders is a long time incumbent. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1991 where he served until becoming a senator in 2008 (which was prior to citizens United). In Vermont, the house of Representatives is a statewide election due to their small population.
Despite being an independent, Sanders has in many ways been acting as a Democrat, so the Democrats have avoided running against him for fear of splitting the vote. Combined with the overall democratic lean of the state, that gives him a relatively secure position.
Many other Democrats are similarly secure in their own seat. However, as part of being members of the party proper, they are under much more pressure to raise money for the party as a whole to spend on competitive raises
How does Bernie have the money to not have to play the game that the other Democrats are playing? Can crowd funding really cover it all?
Yeah, actually. This is mostly because his decades of consistent integrity has earned him a cult-like fanbase of rabid superfans. Don’t get me wrong, he’s earned it, but I’ve met a suprising amount of fans of his IRL who seemed totally ready to throw hands with me after I made the mistake of saying that AOC might be a decent successor to him. A fanbase like that means money. Not anywhere near as much as his peers, of course, but combine the money from rabid supporters with the fact that word of mouth is the best kind of marketing and you get a very affordable campaign.
Also, the fact he’s not playing the game his peers are means he doesn’t have the lifestyle inflation his peers suffer. He seems to live cheaply.
He represents Vermont, our second least populous state, with only about 650,000 residents, and 371,000 votes cast in the 2020 election.
For reference, Washington DC has a population of 690,000, and cast 346,000 votes.
Additionally, Sanders is a long time incumbent. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1991 where he served until becoming a senator in 2008 (which was prior to citizens United). In Vermont, the house of Representatives is a statewide election due to their small population.
Despite being an independent, Sanders has in many ways been acting as a Democrat, so the Democrats have avoided running against him for fear of splitting the vote. Combined with the overall democratic lean of the state, that gives him a relatively secure position.
Many other Democrats are similarly secure in their own seat. However, as part of being members of the party proper, they are under much more pressure to raise money for the party as a whole to spend on competitive raises
It does. He doesn’t accept corporate donations. Even on his last presidential campaign the average donation was $27.