Bernie Sanders won the week. But can he win the weekend?
Bernie Sanders has had a good week.
Or as good a week a presidential candidate can have, when they’re down in nearly every state to their party’s establishment-backed candidate.
The Vermont senator, who has struggled to gain a foothold in southern states, began the week with the release of a viral, six-part interview with Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike, who had earlier endorsed Sanders.
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The Sanders campaign then announced this week that they had received their 2 millionth contribution Wednesday night, more than any other 2016 candidate in the race and outpacing President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection.
In an email to supporters Thursday, the campaign, which says their average contribution is less than $30, took a shot at Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton’s ties to the financial industry.
“You can’t level the playing field with Wall Street banks and billionaires by taking their money,’’ said the email, which invited supporters to a rally outside the Democratic debate Saturday in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Then on Thursday, Sanders picked up two major endorsements within hours of each other.
First, the Communication Workers of America, a 700,000-member trade union of telecommunication workers, announced they were endorsing Sanders for president.
The same morning, Democracy for America, a progressive grassroots organization founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, also endorsed Sanders — despite efforts by Dean, who supports Clinton, to persuade members to back the former secretary of state.
Instead, 88 percent of more than 271,000 members voted to endorse Sanders.
The consecutive endorsements — and subsequent positive press — provide the Sanders campaign needed momentum ahead of Saturday’s debate in New Hampshire, the state on which the campaign’s hope rests. The Vermont senator’s neighboring state is the only early-voting state where the race is up for grabs (Clinton has recently pulled away in Iowa polls, and has consistently led by double digits in South Carolina and Nevada).
“I wake up every morning and tell myself that New Hampshire is a must-win,’’ Sanders’ state director Julia Barnes recently told MSNBC.
Whether the campaign’s momentum will continue depends on if the rest of us wake up Sunday to a Sanders debate win.
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