What Went Down In The Arizona, Florida And Illinois Primaries

Yeah, Sarah, I would imagine that pressure will probably mount for Sanders to leave the race. Illinois seemed like his best shot to do well, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. And even though he plainly thinks the coronavirus crisis is an example of why the country needs radical change like Medicare for All, I’m not sure how many people outside his core base will have the appetite for that.

Sarah, I think Sanders is just running an ideas campaign at this point. His campaign team can do the math — Biden is on a glide slope to the nomination. The best (and only?) reason for Sanders to stay in at this point is to keep his progressive policies in the discussion and move Biden further left (which, in fairness, seems to be working. Granted, there are extenuating circumstances with the coronavirus, but Sanders isn’t even going through the motions of a typical campaign. Instead of a concession speech tonight, he just delivered a 20-minute progressive State of the Union.

We’ll see what happens in Arizona, I guess, Sarah, but I think the question now isn’t so much whether Sanders has a real shot to win but what is best for his movement. It would not seem like taking a bunch of 20-and 30-point losses would improve its credibility.