Would you rather of had Bernie run for President as an independent?!

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44. Just look at the early, southern primaries where he lost state after state.

Nobody knew who Bernie Sanders was.

He gained name recognition and national exposure from being on the Dem primary ticket as the campaign progressed, but it's evident — early on, outside of the north east, few had heard of the independent senator from the small state of Vermont.

That would've remained so without the "D" by his name (for fundraising) and without participating in the Democratic Party TV debates.

Stein did not have that exposure and subsequently bled off a comparatively few votes from Clinton.

Sanders as an independent would've had the same minor effect, but because he was allowed to run as a Dem and gain all the national exposure from using the party's national apparatus, the disloyal-to-the-party Sanders supporters who turned against Clinton when Sanders didn't get the nomination had a much bigger effect in the close election by staying home, writing in Sanders, turning to trump or voting for Stein, ironically, than Stein's 3rd party run did.

Again, he would've been just a blip without the Democratic Party label.