WASHINGTON _ Bernie Sanders' boundary-pushing policy agenda defined the septuagenarian senator as a fresh, revolutionary candidate to legions of young and progressive supporters, helping carry him to unexpected success in his first try for the presidency.
He won't have it as easy the second time around.
As Sanders begins a new presidential campaign, he faces the possibility of falling victim to his own success. The policies that once made him a fringe figure in Democratic politics have _ in part because of his own popularity _ been widely adopted inside the party, including by many of his 2020 rivals.
Instead of running against the cautious Hillary Clinton, he now faces Kamala Harris, who has avowed support for single-payer health care, and Elizabeth Warren, who has pushed the policy envelope even further with proposals that include a wealth tax. Nearly every Democratic candidate supports a $15 federal minimum wage (something that was a major differentiator against Clinton) and many have praised Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal.
The inclusion of so many liberal candidates threatens to erase what made Sanders' candidacy unique and attracted so many progressive supporters. And his own supporters and campaign officials acknowledge that to actually win this primary, he'll need to find new ways to distinguish himself _ and fend off a challenge from his new progressive opponents.
"He was the horse leading the cart, and now the cart has caught up to him _ at least on some of the rhetoric," conceded Faiz Shakir, Sanders' 2020 campaign manager. "The question is whether he can introduce something fresh and continue to lead the cart."
(Shakir spoke to McClatchy before he was announced as the senator's new campaign manager, when he was national political director for the American Civil Liberties Union.)
Plus, he's not starting as strongly as his 2016 performance would suggest. A UMass/YouGov poll released last week found Sanders drawing 20 percent support in New Hampshire, after winning with more than 60 percent of the vote there four years ago. Another survey, from Emerson, found him leading the state, but only with a slim plurality of 27 percent.
"Bernie Sanders is not as strong as you might have thought, for someone who came in second last time around," said Kathy Sullivan, the former chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and the current Democratic national committeewoman from that state. "I see and hear from people who supported him in New Hampshire in 2015, 2016. They're entertaining others. They're going and seeing other candidates ... they're not jumping on with Bernie right now.
"With so many other candidates, so much energy, so much diversity, it's just not going to be the same as it was a couple years ago," she added.
