Bernie Sanders would love to replicate President Obama’s stunning 2008 upset of Hillary Clinton. But even he is skeptical he can replicate her turnout.
Following a campaign event in Des Moines, Sanders told reporters than over 50,000 Iowans have turned up at his campaign events, and they are expecting 60,000 by the end of this week. But will that translate into people coming out to vote, especially in the Iowa caucuses?
“Obama in 2008 ran a campaign that is really going to stay in the history books,” Sanders said following a union event in Des Moines Tuesday. “Do I think in this campaign that we will match that? I’d love to see us do that but frankly I don’t think we can.”
When the Vermont senator launched his campaign in May he registered between 3 and 5 percent in the Iowa polls, whereas today he hovers between 40 and 50 percent in the same polls. Clinton led the polls early on, but Sanders has caught up with her in the polls.
Additionally, the Sanders campaign has gained its principal momentum among younger voters and millennials, as he has the support of 68 percent of voters under 24, whereas Clinton has just 26 percent of the youth vote. This support has helped Sanders on the campaign trail, but in 2012 voters in their twenties showed up to the polls at a much lower rate than older voters.
With six days until the Iowa caucus, the Sanders’ campaign will focus its efforts on bringing out “non-traditional voters” to the caucus room, those who usually aren’t involved in the political process.
“We started our ground game and organization in Iowa a lot later than Secretary Clinton did … She has good ground-game and I applaud her for that,” Sanders admitted. “I think we will have a good voter turnout but it wont be as high as 2008. It will be hard enough for us to win here in Iowa.”
