Sanders: Medicare for All is the 'Defining Issue' of the 2020 campaign [View all]

[crazytown]

Politico, August 13, 2019
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/13/bernie-sanders-medicare-for-all-2020-election-1459217

(snip) Sanders told POLITICO he is now talking about Medicare for All more than ever before and that he sees it as the “defining issue” of the 2020 campaign.

“It could be the winning issue for me in the primary, it will be the winning issue for me in the general election,” he said. “I’m campaigning on the legislation that I wrote. As you know, I wrote the damn bill,” he added, referencing his quip from the second debate that went viral.

Campaign staffers argue the new tack is working, pointing out that Sanders received the biggest polling bump (1.8 percent) of any candidate after the second debate, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight. That was especially encouraging given that health care dominated much of the conversation.

(snip) “Health care is the No. 1 issue with voters, especially Democratic primary voters, and Bernie is the most trusted candidate on health care,” Sanders’ pollster, Ben Tulchin, said in an interview. “So it became increasingly clear over the last few months, as the campaign talked more and more about it, that health care was a real strength and opportunity for us to focus on. And as a result of doing that, we’ve gained in the polling.”