Bernie Sanders Runs Away With Nevada Caucuses; Cements Status as Democratic Frontrunner

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 LAS VEGAS—In 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders came within five points of beating Hillary Clinton in the Nevada caucuses, a stunning near-upset that, after a similar near-miss in Iowa, helped kickstart the progressive movement that has made him one of the most influential politicians in the country.

Four years later—and mere weeks after another hair’s-breadth loss in a caucus state he’d been favored to win—Sanders has won the Nevada caucuses outright, with a huge lead over his nearest competitor, Joe Biden. It cements his status as the undisputed frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination and positions him for a Super Tuesday performance that, his campaign says, could transform him from frontrunner to presumptive nominee.

In other words: Bernie’s got heat.

The odds were in Sanders’ favor in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s caucuses, after a closer-than-anticipated win in the New Hampshire primary and a debate in Sin City where insurgent billionaire Michael Bloomberg drew most of the fire that, under normal circumstances, would have been trained on the frontrunner.

Although the Nevada caucuses were far from smooth—thousands of early ballots were tossed out due to a lack of signatures—the state’s Democratic Party avoided the national humiliation endured by Iowa after that state’s untested reporting process fell apart on caucus night. But despite those hiccups, the Vermont independent’s lead was almost never in dispute on Saturday.

 Sanders, like several of his fellow candidates, wasn’t even in Nevada when he gave his victory speech. Instead he spoke from Texas—a critical, delegate-rich Super Tuesday state.

“No campaign has a grassroots movement like we do, which is another reason we are going to win the election,” Sanders said at a packed rally in San Antonio. “In Nevada, I want to thank our rank and file union members.”

The “rank and file” reference was no accident.

Sanders’ win amounts to a strong rebuke of critics—both within the Democratic field and Nevada’s union-based political firmament—who said that his signature “Medicare for All” proposal would alienate members of the state’s powerful organized labor force, many of whom enjoy the spoils of decades of hard-fought contract negotiations that have won gold-plated healthcare plans for union members.

Although the influential Culinary Workers Union passed on formally endorsing a primary candidate in this cycle—and had implicitly criticized “Medicare for All” as a threat to its healthcare victories—Sanders appeared to be the favorite of rank-and-file union workers in Las Vegas.

“Since 2016 to here, I’ve followed Bernie,” said Hawi Baker, who works as a cleaner at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and is a member of the Culinary Workers Union. Originally from Ethiopia, Baker said that she has been drawn to support Sanders because of his stance on universal healthcare, rather than in spite of it.

“For example, my husband, my kids’ dad, he don’t have insurance—he’s a truck driver,” Baker said. “But when he tried to get the insurance, it’s very expensive.”

Source:thedailybeast.com/