Bernie Sanders 2020 Run Not Just The Stuff Of Dreams: ‘I’m Not Ruling Out Anything’

Bernie Sanders 2020 run is not just the stuff of dreams.

With Donald Trump having won the 2016 presidential race, many Bernie Sanders supporters have been left reeling. The Vermont senator lost out to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, but later WikiLeaks email releases appeared to suggest that the DNC had colluded with the Clinton campaign to force him out the door. His supporters believe that he had a much better chance of beating Trump than Clinton did, and polls taken at the time of the primaries give credibility to this assumption. Several polls showed that Sanders would have beaten the Republican nominee with a staggering margin, and yet Clinton was chosen as the Democratic nominee in a move that was widely panned by several lifelong Democrats as being similar to a coronation.

And now, with Hillary Clinton having lost the presidential election, Sanders supporters have been left wondering what if Bernie was chosen as the Democratic nominee. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Sanders if he would have defeated Trump, Bernie refused to dwell on it, but not without reiterating that he would have loved to take on the real estate mogul, and now, America’s president-elect.

“What good does it do now? I don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense to do Monday-morning-quarterbacking right now. The election is over. Donald Trump won. But between you and me, I would have loved to have the opportunity to have run against him.”

So is a president Bernie Sanders never going to happen? His supporters do not believe so. Calls for a 2020 Bernie Sanders run have gathered pace ever since the results of the 2016 elections were out, and while the Vermont senator has stressed that he would try to work with Donald Trump as long as he works for the average American workers and families, he refused to rule out another presidential campaign in 2020.

Speaking to the Associated Press during a phone interview, Bernie Sanders refused to rule out another run in 2020, but he insisted that his immediate energies cannot be focused in that direction. He also said that he would first want to be re-elected as a senator in 2018.

“Four years is a long time from now. We’ll take one thing at a time, but I’m not ruling out anything.”

There are certainly challenges that Sanders would have to face if he were to mount another presidential challenge in 2020, such as his age. The Vermont senator would be 79 in 2020, and no American president has ever been elected to the White House at that age. But the passion and energy that Sanders displays at 75 is astonishing to say the least. His election campaign illustrated a breathtaking ability to connect with the average American voter, and when one considers the fact that he managed to raise money from 7 million individual donors, there are all the ingredients a candidate needs for a successful presidential campaign.

Another problem that Sanders faced in the 2016 election was that he was contesting against a political elite: Hillary Clinton. But it is very unlikely that Clinton would now conceive another campaign in 2020, and that could leave the door open for Sanders to contest. The DNC has very nearly been humbled after the devastating loss it has endured at the hands of Donald Trump, and it could spur a populist revival within the party, which would then see the Democratic Party elect their most able candidate in the 2020 election. And Sanders, despite his age, could certainly be that candidate.

“It is an embarrassment, I think, to the entire of Democratic Party that millions of white working-class people decided to vote for Mr. Trump, which suggests that the Democratic message of standing up for working people no longer holds much sway among workers in this country,” Bernie Sanders said in the interview, clearly signaling that the Democratic Party needs a revival if it has to have a say in the future of American politics.

His supporters definitely think a Bernie Sanders 2020 run is not impossible, and social media has been abuzz with calls for the Vermont senator to take another plunge in four years’ time.

@BernieSanders Hello Sir, please run for President in 2020. Please, please, please.

— basic twat? (@sam_anvbis) November 9, 2016

Hopefully next time Democrats won't screw over the country by forcing someone on the ballot. @BernieSanders should be President!

— Not Bill Walton (@NotBillWalton) November 9, 2016

Dear American friends, take this as a lessson. @BernieSanders for president on next election! #USElection2016

— Nikola Vulovi? (@eElrond) November 9, 2016

Have your say: Do you think a Bernie Sanders 2020 run is a realistic possibility?

[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]