[H]AMPTON, N.H. — Three weeks ago, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was the undisputed front-runner in his neighboring state of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation 2020 presidential primary.
Sanders, having raised a historic $5.9 million in the first 24 hours after his campaign launch, was preparing to host nearly 5,000 coast-to-coast volunteer organizing events as Granite State polling revealed him winning a full third of voters in an otherwise splintered field of 19 Democratic candidates.
“The 2020 Race Is Going Just Like Bernie Sanders Wanted,” a headline in The Atlantic reported April 17.
“Bernie Sanders Is the New No. 1,” CNN affirmed April 24.
Then former Vice President Joe Biden announced his own bid April 25.
When Biden arrived in this seacoast town of Hampton to kick off his New Hampshire campaign Monday, he came with a record-breaking $6.3 million first-24-hour fundraising haul and Granite State polling that now shows him leading Sanders by a 2-1 margin — 36%-18%.
“Biden’s Entry into the Democratic Race Provides a Jolt to the Sanders Candidacy,” reports the Washington Post’s latest headline.
“Joe Biden Is the Clear 2020 Front-Runner Now,” CNN adds.
“I plan on doing everything I can to earn the respect and support of the people of New Hampshire,” Biden told the public and press in a standing-room-only Hampton event. “I’m going to be here a lot.”
That’s because the new front-runner still faces hurdles. Sanders’ campaign is a well-oiled machine after winning the 2016 New Hampshire primary by more than 20 points over eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, setting a state record for the most votes received by any candidate in such a contest.
Biden, in comparison, is just starting up the engine. The former vice president’s first Granite State stop, for example, was at Hampton’s Community Oven pizza parlor, which only learned it was on the schedule last Friday even though the campaign announced its tour dates nearly a month ago.
A crowd of 500 people that began arriving 2½ hours before the event discovered the restaurant only seated 125, while a live C-SPAN camera and gaggle of reporters found themselves in a room lit more for moody atmosphere than clear photography.
That didn’t stop Biden from rolling in with momentum. On the day he announced his candidacy, the RealClearPolitics.com average of national polls showed him at 29 percent versus Sanders at 23 percent. Biden’s number since has risen to 41 percent while Sanders’ has dropped to 15 percent.
“This election is bigger than any you’ve been engaged in, not because I’m running, or anybody else is running, but because of who occupies the office,” Biden told the Hampton crowd in reference to President Donald Trump.
Sanders, for his part, is being challenged by such progressives as fellow New England U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and younger candidates including South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who now ranks third in New Hampshire after not rating at all two months ago.
But for the Vermonter, the former vice president remains his biggest obstacle — and opportunity.
“For all their differences, Sanders and Biden have a mutual interest in preserving their duopoly and using each other as foils,” notes the recent NBC News story “Why Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden Really Need Each Other.” “Sanders needs an establishment antagonist, while Biden, 76, may prefer running against the 77-year-old Sanders than 20 younger options.”
Not taking any chances, Sanders is talking up his differences with Biden on such issues as trade and the Iraq War while pointing out he’s the author of the new “Medicare for All” bill and an early promoter of a $15 minimum wage and debt-free college that many of the other candidates now are advocating.
“We’re taking nothing for granted — we’re going to fight for every vote; we’re going to work hard every day,” Sanders’ Granite State director Joe Caiazzo says in a new Vox story headlined “The New Hampshire Primary Will Make or Break Bernie Sanders,” which offers the Vermonter some comfort.
“New Hampshire voters are famously fickle and prone to making up their minds at the last minute,” the article states. “Poll after poll shows vast majority of voters are still shopping around for a candidate.”
And the primary, it adds, is still nine months away.
