Sorry fellow Democrats, but there is no "Safe" Presidential candidate for 2020

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. Fair question

In the narrow sense I meant winning the popular vote from both rounds of the Iowa Caucus and then winning the NH Primary. But Sanders started winning elections in Vermont when it was much more of a red leaning state. It hasn't always been the way it is today and Sanders gets good grades from a wide swath of Vermont constituents, across the political spectrum which is why is recognized as the most popular Senator in the Senate (based on home state sentiments. As to the prior Primaries, when 2016 began Sanders had about as much power in the Democratic Party relative to Hillary Clinton as Ukraine has relative to Russia (and no, I don't mean to imply anything political or ideological about that analogy - simply referencing relative strength). Today Sanders has a national machine and a strong national backing, but he had to build that from scratch in the heat of an initially one sided battle when he announced against Secretary Clinton. And he won quite a few state contests then even so.