[W]hen Sen. Bernie Sanders takes the debate stage along with 11 of his competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, he will be making his official return to the campaign trail since suffering a heart attack two weeks ago.
Many of the candidates, with the exception of Julian Castro and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, are poised to continue attacking him for his signature Medicare for All proposal, a strategy utilized in the three previous debates.
But Sanders’ biggest challenge of the evening will be to quell doubts about his health and to get his campaign back on track.
“He was hospitalized for a heart attack and I think a lot of voters and press are going to make sure he doesn’t show any signs of lack of stamina and that he fully participates in the three hours of the debate,” said Eric Davis, professor emeritus of political science at Middlebury College.
Garrison Nelson, a political science professor emeritus at the University of Vermont who has known Sanders for four decades, put it more bluntly, saying the Vermont independent benefitted from running against a flawed candidate in Hillary Clinton during 2016 but that in 2019, his time has passed — with or without health issues.
“He ain’t a novelty anymore. He’s 78 years old with a heart condition,” Nelson said. “It is basically an ego-centric campaign that will undermine Democratic prospects in 2020.”
Sanders had, along with former Vice President Joe Biden and Warren, already committed to releasing his medical records before his heart attack, but he doubled down on this during an interview with ABC on Sunday.
“I think when you’re running for president of the United States, the American people have a right to know the condition of your health,” he said.
Sanders’ heart attack could not have come at a more inopportune time for him or his presidential campaign.
For weeks, the Vermont senator had stagnated in national and statewide polls, slowly falling behind Warren as she surged ahead of him and began challenging Biden as the leading contender in the crowded Democratic field.
Before news broke that Sanders was in a Las Vegas hospital recuperating from surgery, his campaign received a much needed boost in the form of raising $25 million in the last three months, outpacing all other Democratic candidates.
The feeling around the campaign in the immediate aftermath of beating out Biden, Warren and other top fundraiser Pete Buttigieg, was one of confidence, with campaign manager Faiz Shakir telling supporters on a conference call that Sanders was well placed to win Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
“Obviously the state of our campaign is we feel is strong. We do have work to do because our path is the most ambitious path of any out there,” he said.
Now, after two weeks off the campaign trail and being forced to walk back comments that he would slim down his event schedule, Sanders’ strategy moving forward is much less certain as he reenters the public eye during Tuesday’s debate.
“All he can do is say what the doctors have reported and then pivot as quickly as possible to policy issues,” said Matthew Dickinson, a professor of political science at Middlebury College, who has been closely following the Democratic primary.
However, Dickinson also thinks the focus on Sanders’ health issues may actually belie more systemic concerns about the Vermont senator’s campaign and his chances of winning the nomination.
“We are looking for signs he is broadening his message and he hasn’t shown any ability to do that,” he said. “Understandably we are going to focus on health, but arguably there are bigger issues for Bernie Sanders.”
“I thought he was facing an uphill battle from day one and that remains, whether he is healthy or not,” Dickinson added.
In an attempt to make Sanders’ return from heart surgery into a comeback tour, his campaign has planned a “Bernie’s Back” rally in New York City for Saturday, renewed the call to lower prescription drug prices and pass Medicare for All, while continuing the push for more financial contributions.
On Monday, the Sanders camp sent out emails to supporters who have not yet donated to Sanders, urging them to do so and writing it was 30,000 donations short of where it was at this point a month ago.
Sanders has also recently tried to contrast himself with Warren, telling ABC over the weekend that “Elizabeth considers herself — if I got the quote correctly — to be a capitalist to her bones. I don’t.”
“The reason I am not is because I will not tolerate for one second the kind of greed and corruption and income and wealth inequality and so much suffering that is going on in this country today, which is unnecessary,” he said.
The following day after the interview, Sanders announced a proposal that would give workers ownership stakes in the companies they work for, break up large corporate mergers and reverse the Trump administration’s corporate tax cuts.
Sanders’ plan to reshape how corporations conduct business in the U.S. resembles policy Warren rolled out in 2018.
But, much like his proposal to wipe away college debt and a plan to impose a wealth tax on the richest in the country, Sanders goes much further than his New England counterpart, as he continues to push further left as others begin to correct to the center.