Former Obama senior advisor and Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer said Senator Bernie Sanders is a serious contender to receive the Democratic nomination, after a recent jump in national and early-state polls.

Pfeiffer told Politico that "people should take [Sanders] very seriously." He said that Sanders has very good chances in the states with early primaries and caucuses.

"He has a very good shot of winning Iowa, a very good shot of winning New Hampshire, and other than Joe Biden, the best shot of winning Nevada," said Pfeiffer, noting that these early odds improved Sanders' chances going forward. "He could build a real head of steam heading into South Carolina and Super Tuesday," a Tuesday early in the primaries where the most states hold primaries and caucuses. That falls on March 3, 2020, with Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia holding primaries.

Pfeiffer served as a strategy and communications senior advisor to President Barack Obama during the president's second term; he had worked for the Obama-Biden transition team after Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election. Prior to being appointed senior advisor, Pfeiffer served as White House communications director. In June 2018, he published his first book Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump. His next book, Un-Trumping America, will be released in February 2020.

Whether we like it or not, horse race season is upon us, and that means pundits and voters and candidates will increasingly be asking a simple question: Which Democrat has the best chance against Trump? The numbers have fluctuated throughout the primary, but in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, it’s Bernie Sanders who has the best hypothetical numbers against the president:



Sanders and Biden are both +4 in the hypothetical match-up, but it's Sanders who attracts the most voters. It's all within the margin of error still, but these results are good enough to put the lie to the idea that Sanders' ideas somehow make him unelectable. Sanders and Biden both lead Warren, who holds a +2 margin over Trump, While Bloomberg is +1 and Buttigieg (-1) is the only likely nominee who trails Trump.