Behind Bernie Sanders' Decision to Stay in the Race

In one striking sequence that highlighted his ideological resolve, Sanders ticked off a list of policy issues and challenged Biden to explain to the American people how he would address them — a series of questions that could be seen as an opening gambit for a list of concessions he would seek from Biden if he were to drop out of the race.

“He’s pivoting to ensure that the issues that he has built his political career around continue to be front and center in the political dialogue,” said Nick Carter, who served as political outreach director for the 2016 Sanders campaign. “I also think he has top of mind ensuring his supporters and those unenthusiastic about a Biden candidacy — ‘don’t call it a day.’ ”

Sanders’ decision to continue thrusts the race into a delicate new phase, with Biden, a moderate, holding a clear path to the nomination but Sanders wielding the support of the party’s liberal wing. How they navigate their differences to try to unite the competing factions will go a long way toward determining whether Democrats assemble a coalition powerful enough to dethrone President Donald Trump in the fall.

The race has already been upended by the crisis surrounding the coronavirus epidemic, which has forced both candidates to curtail appearances before big crowds and to plan for a debate Sunday without a live audience. The Biden campaign announced Wednesday it was canceling two upcoming events in Illinois and Florida. Sanders has yet to officially announce any public events, but his campaign is planning virtual events such as tele-town halls and livestreamed addresses.

Sanders did not consider dropping out after Tuesday’s losses, according to people familiar with his thinking, but he was stunned by how severe they were and now recognizes he needs to reassess his path forward. Biden scored victories in four states, including Michigan, where Sanders had counted on a victory to revive his candidacy.

In recent days, Sanders has told people that the campaign is running out of time to recapture its momentum or maintain sufficient leverage to demand the kinds of sweeping progressive policy concessions from Biden he outlined Wednesday.

Nine times during his remarks, Sanders cited an issue central to his progressive agenda and asked Biden, “What are you going to do?” — listing systemic problems related to topics like health care and income inequality.

Sanders is also still fighting to win, some of his aides said, insisting there were more opportunities to accumulate delegates in states like Oregon and Wisconsin, which would require Sanders to stay in the race into late April and May.

But one longtime Sanders confidant, Larry Cohen, also acknowledged the challenges ahead in states like Florida and Ohio, which vote next week, and the daunting coalition of white and African American voters Biden has put together. Cohen, the chairman of Our Revolution, the Sanders-aligned political organization, said the goal was now as much about accruing delegates to use as leverage in negotiations with Biden as it was an effort to win the nomination.

“Every delegate is critical to our agenda and discussions with Joe Biden,” Cohen said from Florida, where he met Wednesday with Our Revolution members who are seeking delegate slots at the Democratic National Convention to help Sanders. Of Sanders’ supporters, Cohen said, “Their only voice is to be elected delegate.”

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Sanders now finds himself in an awkward position, pressing on despite long odds even as he insists he wants above all for a Democrat to beat Trump in November. For months, he has been reluctant to attack Biden directly, which resulted in inconsistent messaging: At times, he and his campaign would attack Biden, only to pull back and return to his central policy message of transformational change.

After Super Tuesday and into this week, some allies expressed frustration, anxious that even if Sanders were to mount a comeback, it would be too late. On Tuesday night, his most prominent surrogate, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, told viewers on her Instagram livestream that the election results were a setback for the progressive movement.

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Sanders has also made it clear that he is aware he cannot continue to campaign indefinitely and defiantly, as he did against Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to former aides and people currently in his orbit.

And for all of the criticism he has leveled at Biden recently, Sanders feels far more positively in a personal way toward Biden than he did toward Clinton, which could make a reconciliation less contentious, according to a veteran of the last campaign. This person and others briefed on Sanders’ campaign plans insisted on anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.

Over the past several months, Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Sanders, has opened up a line of communication with one of Biden’s top political aides, Anita Dunn. Although the back-channel setup has mostly been used to arrange logistics — they hashed out an agreement this week to bar a live audience from Sunday’s debate — it is likely to be the main conduit for talks about political matters, according to people on both campaigns.

With more than half the delegates still to be allocated, aides to Sanders said they saw more fertile terrain in the coming weeks. They point out that Sanders narrowly lost Illinois four years ago and see strength in Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. Georgia, with its heavily black electorate, will most likely go to Biden, who currently leads Sanders in delegates, 864 to 710, with delegates still to be counted.

Sanders also has about $9 million worth of ads booked through Tuesday, including a $2 million buy this week.

Aides say Sanders is particularly motivated to participate in the debate Sunday in Phoenix because he views it as his first and possibly last opportunity to face Biden one on one and hold him accountable for his record, while trumpeting his own record in contrast.

“Donald Trump must be defeated, and I will do everything in my power to make that happen,” Sanders said Wednesday. “On Sunday night, in the first one-on-one debate of this campaign, the American people will have the opportunity to see which candidate is best positioned to accomplish that goal.”

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But the rest of his path forward is murky, especially as concerns about the coronavirus threaten to upend a signature facet of his campaign: Sanders’ enormous rallies, where the enthusiasm and passion of his loyal base are on vivid display. It is unclear how he will marshal the energy he boasts about from behind a computer screen or over a telephone line.

In his address Wednesday, Sanders spoke soberly about the signals voters had sent about Biden being more electable.

“I cannot tell you how many people our campaign has spoken to who have said — and I quote — ‘I like what your campaign stands for. I agree with what your campaign stands for. But I’m going to vote for Joe Biden because I think Joe is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump,’ ” he said.

“Needless to say, I strongly disagree with that assertion, but that is what millions of Democrats and independents today believe.”

Sanders watched the results come in Tuesday night at his home with his wife, Jane, while aides gathered elsewhere. He did not make any public comments then.

On Wednesday at his news conference, Sanders was cleareyed about the challenges ahead but also resolute about his strengths.

“Last night obviously was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view,” Sanders said, as his wife looked on. But he asserted that he was “winning the generational debate,” saying that while Biden was appealing to older voters, he was drawing younger Americans, and that the party needed to build around the leaders of the future.

“Today, I say to the Democratic establishment, in order to win in the future, you need to win the voters who represent the future of our country, and you must speak to the issues of concern to them.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .