Prepare to ‘Feel the Bern’ Again, in 2024

While it seems like the 2024 presidential election is a world away, in reality, it will be here before you know it. Soon after the 2022 mid-term elections are finished, you can bet your bottom dollar that candidates on both sides of the political aisle will begin testing the waters for a presidential run.

So, where do things stand in terms of leading candidates for the 2024 presidential nomination for the Democratic Party? Well, according to a recent USA Today/IPSOS poll, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is polling ahead of the incumbent president. Sanders, a self-avowed socialist, has a 46 percent favorability rating, three points higher than President Biden. For good measure, former President Donald Trump also has a 46 percent favorability rating among potential GOP candidates.

So, could the third time be the charm for the socialist from Vermont? As of now, it certainly seems so. In 20 months on the job, Biden has been an unmitigated disaster. Of course, Americans who lean to the right think Biden’s foreign and domestic policy record has been abysmal. However, many Democratic voters think Biden has not been nearly progressive enough.

Enter Sanders, who has been a darling of the progressive left for several years. But, will the Democratic Party establishment actually allow Sanders to grab the Party’s 2024 nomination? Based on the past two presidential election cycles, wherein the Democratic Party establishment rigged the system against Sanders, it would appear that Bernie is far from a shoe-in. But, based on the fact that more and more Democratic Party voters are inclined towards socialism, you can’t count Sanders out yet.

PHOTO: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Photo by Gage Skidmore. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the editorial director and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute, as well as a researcher and contributing editor at StoppingSocialism.com.