Heading into Tuesday’s Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders has a special post-heart attack burden: to prove he’s healthy enough to serve as president, a new poll shows.
In the HuffPost/YouGov survey, released Monday, 42% of Democrats said the Vermont senator’s “physical condition is not good enough.” Sanders, 78, was hospitalized in Las Vegas recently for three days after experiencing chest pains following a campaign event. The doctors discovered he had suffered a myocardial infarction when the senator underwent surgery to receive two stents.
In the survey of 1,000 people from Oct. 8-10, 26% of Democrats said his health was good enough to serve in the White House. Overall, 19% of registered voters believe that Sanders is in good enough health to be president for the next four years, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 3.4%.
On Wednesday, Sanders will join his 11 other Democratic rivals on stage in Westerville, Ohio for the fourth round of presidential primary debates. That includes his two main rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is 76, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is 70. Should Sanders win the Democratic nod and beat President Trump, 73, he would be the oldest person to be commander-in-chief. President Ronald Reagan was 77 when his two terms ended.
Sanders’ recent health scare is only likely to add to questions about his physical abilities.
“I think that he has to, of course, address his health. It’s not just that people are struggling with healthcare issues, he should make light of it,” said former Sanders staffer Nomiki Konst.
Sanders still has time to turn around Democratic voters concerns about his health, Konst said.
“Once he gets back out there on the trail and is on the debate stage and gets in time and shows his strength and why people believe in him, I think those numbers will change more in his favor,” she said.
Sanders’ rivals don’t face the same immediate concerns about health, the poll shows. In Warren’s case, 66% of registered voters felt her physical condition is good enough, while 76% of Democrats think the same. For Biden, 43% of registered voters thought he was healthy enough, compared to 60% of registered Democrats.
Health issues have long been part of presidential politics, said Matthew Algeo, author of The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth.
“If you look at the history of presidents and their health and the extent they’ve gone to to confront unhealthy problems indicates it is a concern for Americans,” Algeo told the Washington Examiner. “Whether they should be concerned is a different matter. As far as perception goes, it seems to be the case in U.S. presidential history that the perception of being less than physically fit is considered a negative perception.”
Earlier this month, Sanders conceded that his recent heart attack will force him to “change the nature” of his second White House run. He later walked back that statement following concern that he wasn’t healthy enough to follow through with his campaign.
Recent polling suggests Warren has begun winning voters over from Sanders’ camp, as the pair compete for some of the Democratic coaltion’s most left-leaning voters. His national polling peaked in March at 27%, four points behind Biden. Over the summer, though, Warren’s poll numbers skyrocketed, turning her into a leading candidate.
Meanwhile Sanders’ steadily dropped off. A RealClearPolitics average of polls from Sept. 23 through Oct. 8 has Sanders at 15.2%, with Warren at 26%.
