Bernie Sanders' Biggest Problem: He better fix it or he's doomed

Bernie Sanders, 77, has a problem with old people. In poll after poll, he places a distant second behind former Vice President Joe Biden among the senior set, the demographic that has long had more sway over who becomes president than any other. His campaign acknowledges it's a problem and is trying — so far, unsuccessfully — to fix it. It’s a familiar issue for the septuagenarian senator: In 2016, Sanders won more voters from young people than Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump combined. But Clinton crushed him among older Americans at the ballot box, denying him the nomination.

The possibility of the same weakness thwarting Sanders’ second bid for the White House looms over his campaign. Sanders’ team knows he needs to do better among older voters. The campaign is scheduling events to attract more elderly voters, including one on Thursday at a seniors community center in Nevada, and his aides are optimistic that his plans to expand Social Security and Medicare benefits will help.

But some of the same qualities that have made Sanders a folk hero among millennials could be repelling seniors. His embrace of democratic socialism and calls for a political revolution are likely a tougher sell to many older voters who lived through the Cold War and are generally more conservative. And in a year when Democrats just want to beat President Donald Trump, the Vermont independent is seen by some Democrats as less electable than, say, Joe Biden.

“Sanders needs to find a way to connect with longer established Democratic voters, and that’s older voters,” said Bhaskar Sunkara, a Sanders supporter who founded the socialist magazine Jacobin and is a former vice chairman of Democratic Socialists of America. “It's tricky. Biden has higher perceptions of electability, and it could be hard to convince people they should be voting for Bernie when they're already familiar with this other guy, and their main concern is getting Trump out of office."