Des Moines, Iowa(CNN) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez capped her debut on the Iowa hustings in support of Bernie Sanders last week with a blunt call to action.
"This is not about something that we allow to happen to us. We don't let this race happen to us," she said at a rally for the Vermont senator in Council Bluffs. "We don't watch the presidential race. This is not a movie, this a movement."
And yet, there has been a certain cinematic quality to the last six weeks of Sanders' second Democratic presidential campaign. Nearly sidelined, or worse, by a heart attack in Las Vegas on the first night of October, Sanders has charted a remarkable revival. It's been powered by a run of invigorating endorsements, new poll results that showed him gaining steam in New Hampshire and Iowa, and the sense -- fueled in part by the massive crowds that welcomed him during recent rallies in New York and Minnesota -- that his "political revolution" was, after a trying summer, back on the march.
There are also, as Sanders joked following his Saturday climate summit in Des Moines, the stents to thank.
"I've got three arteries that are working right now -- that's pretty good," he deadpanned, while practicing mid-range jumpers on a basketball court at Drake University. "Better than one blocked artery, so I'm feeling really good."
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., greet supporters on the campus of Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Friday, November 8.
His supporters and staff are saying much of the same. The backing of Ocasio-Cortez, along with fellow "squad" members Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, news of which broke before and during the most recent debate last month in Ohio, bolstered an argument that Sanders has been making for months -- that his campaign is steadily attracting a racially diverse, young and working class coalition ready to make an unapologetic case for his democratic socialist vision.
Democratic voters, too, have made it clear that Sanders remains front of mind as the primary season approaches.
About two weeks after the debate, a CNN poll of Democrats in New Hampshire showed Sanders with a narrow lead over the emerging top tier of candidates, with 21% to Sen. Elizabeth Warren's 18%. Former Vice President Joe Biden came in at 15%, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, placed fourth with 10%. No one else touched double digits. Recent surveys of Democrats in Iowa show the same group jockeying, mostly within the margin of statistical error, for the top position.
A durable candidate
For an elected leader famously disinclined to discuss his own inner life, and whose campaign slogan -- "Not me, us" -- is both a comment on his view of politics and a criticism of how its practice is covered by the press, Sanders wry assessment of his arterial functions felt like a revolution in its own right. "Bernie's back," as his campaign puts it, but the person at the center of it all seems just a little bit different. As if he's been freed, finally, to return the embrace of an increasingly influential leftist movement -- the largest the country has seen in nearly a century -- that has vaulted him to within a relative whisper of the White House.
Sanders entered the current Democratic primary in February with the same message he has championed for the better party of four decades. It's one that he pushed in 2016, when he challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and lost. This time, the world around him had changed, and so too had the expectations surrounding his campaign. No longer an underdog, Sanders began his 2020 bid amid a new round of harrowing questions.
Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
US Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Chicago in March 2019. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.
Sanders, right, leads a sit-in organized by the Congress of Racial Equality in 1962. The demonstration was staged to oppose housing segregation at the University of Chicago. It was Chicago's first civil rights sit-in.
Sanders takes the oath of office to become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. He ran as an independent and won the race by 10 votes.
Sanders, right, tosses a baseball before a minor-league game in Vermont in 1984. US Sen. Patrick Leahy, center, was also on hand.
In 1987, Sanders and a group of Vermont musicians recorded a spoken-word folk album. "We Shall Overcome" was first released as a cassette that sold about 600 copies. When Sanders entered the US presidential race in 2015,
the album surged in online sales. But at a CNN town hall, Sanders said, "It's the worst album ever recorded."
Sanders reads mail at his campaign office in Burlington in 1990. He was running for the US House of Representatives after an unsuccessful bid in 1988.
In 1990, Sanders defeated US Rep. Peter Smith in the race for Vermont's lone House seat. He won by 16 percentage points.
Sanders sits next to President Bill Clinton in 1993 before the Congressional Progressive Caucus held a meeting at the White House. Sanders co-founded the caucus in 1991 and served as its first chairman.
Barack Obama, then a US senator, endorses Sanders' Senate bid at a rally in Burlington in 2006.
Sanders takes part in a swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol in January 2007. He won his Senate seat with 65% of the vote.
Sanders chats with Dr. John Matthew, director of The Health Center in Plainfield, Vermont, in May 2007. Sanders was in Plainfield to celebrate a new source of federal funding for The Health Center.
Sanders speaks to reporters in 2010 about the Obama administration's push to extend Bush-era tax cuts. Three days later, Sanders held a filibuster against the reinstatement of the tax cuts. His speech, which lasted more than eight hours, was published in book form in 2011. It is called "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class."
Sanders and US Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, walk to a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Sanders was chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
In March 2015, Sanders speaks in front of letters and petitions asking Congress to reject proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
In July 2015, two months after announcing he would be seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President, Sanders
spoke to nearly 10,000 supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. "Tonight we have made a little bit of history," he said. "You may know that some 25 candidates are running for President of the United States, but tonight we have more people at a meeting for a candidate for President of the United States than any other candidate has."
Seconds after Sanders took the stage for a campaign rally in August 2015, a dozen protesters from Seattle's Black Lives Matter chapter
jumped barricades and grabbed the microphone from the senator. Holding a banner that said "Smash Racism," two of the protesters -- Marissa Johnson, left, and Mara Jacqueline Willaford -- began to address the crowd.
Sanders shakes hands with Hillary Clinton at a Democratic debate in Las Vegas in October 2015. The hand shake came after Sanders' take on
the Clinton email scandal. "Let me say something that may not be great politics, but the secretary is right -- and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails, let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
Sanders embraces Remaz Abdelgader, a Muslim student, during an October 2015 event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Asked what he would do about Islamophobia in the United States, Sanders said he was determined to fight racism and "build a nation in which we all stand together as one people."
Sanders waves while walking in a Veterans Day parade in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in November 2015.
Sanders sits with rapper and activist Killer Mike at the Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta in November 2015. That evening, Killer Mike
introduced Sanders at a campaign event in the city. "I'm talking about a revolutionary," the rapper told supporters. "In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Sen. Bernie Sanders is the right man to lead this country."
Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March 2016. He
won the state's primary the next day, an upset that delivered a sharp blow to Clinton's hopes of quickly securing the nomination.
Sanders speaks at a campaign event in New York's Washington Square Park in April 2016.
Sanders speaks at a rally in Santa Monica, California, in June 2016. He pledged to stay in the Democratic race even though Clinton secured the delegates she needed to become the presumptive nominee.
Sanders
endorses Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in July 2016.
Sanders
addresses delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in July 2016.
Sanders thanks supporters after winning re-election to the Senate in November 2018.
Sanders looks at his notes as he watches President Trump deliver the State of the Union address in February 2019. That month, Sanders announced that he would be running for president again.
Sanders hugs a young supporter during a campaign rally in Los Angeles in March 2019.
Sanders addresses the audience at a CNN town hall in Washington in April 2019.
Sanders speaks next to former Vice President Joe Biden at the first Democratic debates in June 2019.
Sanders raises his fist as he holds a rally in Santa Monica, California, in July 2019.
Sanders grabs the hand of US Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the Democratic debates in Detroit in July 2019.
Sanders campaigns at the University of New Hampshire in September 2019. A few days later,
he took himself off the campaign trail after doctors treated a blockage in one of his arteries. Sanders suffered a heart attack, his campaign confirmed.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduces Sanders at a New York rally after endorsing him for president in October 2019.
In a
tense and dramatic exchange moments after a Democratic debate, Warren accused Sanders of calling her a liar on national television. Sanders responded that it was Warren who called him a liar. Earlier in the debate, the two disagreed on whether Sanders told Warren, during a private dinner in 2018, that he didn't believe a woman could win the presidency.
Sanders laughs during a primary-night rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, in February 2020. Sanders won
the primary, just as he did in 2016.
A triumphant Sanders raises his fist in San Antonio after he was projected to win
the Nevada caucuses.
Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden talk before a Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 2020.
Sanders addresses supporters during a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in March 2020.
Sanders speaks to reporters in Burlington, Vermont, a day after
Super Tuesday II. Sanders said it "was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view" but that he looked forward to staying in the race and taking on Joe Biden in an upcoming debate.
Biden greets Sanders with an elbow bump before the start of a debate in Washington in March 2020. They went with an elbow bump instead of a handshake because of the coronavirus pandemic.
What if his supporters in 2016 fled for a fresh face, like former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke? How would he fair in a more crowded field, with fellow progressive icon Elizabeth Warren now another option for Democrats? Would his appeal wane without Clinton around to play his moderate foil? Could he expand his base beyond the diehards and ideologues, and actually turn out the tuned-out voters -- so many young and working class -- that so often go underrepresented on Election Day?
The answers, to date, are either mixed or inconclusive.
There are still nearly three months to go before the Iowa caucuses kick off a primary that is shaping up to be among the messiest in a generation. O'Rourke faded and dropped out of the race. But Warren is firmly entrenched among the frontrunners. Clinton's shadow still lingers, for better or worse, and Biden offers a similar contrast, while South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has emerged a formidable centrist foe. The Bernie base remains firmly in place. Whether he can grow it -- and if he can, by how much -- is open for debate.
In the meantime, Sanders is taking on the most recent source of doubt -- his health -- with the kind of alternately droll and punchy sense of humor he is traditionally loathe to display in public.
"This is not a beauty contest," Sanders said of the primary during his first trip to Iowa after the heart attack, back in October. "Which obviously I would win, I know that."
A change of tone
During his brief convalescence at home in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders invited television cameras and reporters inside to answer more detailed questions about his health. But since the most recent primary debate in Ohio, and a rousing rally in New York with Ocasio-Cortez and other young progressive leaders, he's taken a lighter tone.
"Brothers and sisters, I thank you so much for your support, but this is what I want to say. This comes from the bottom of my heart," Sanders said at a festive gathering in Detroit, where he was officially endorsed by Tlaib, before pausing for effect. As his smile widened, Sanders delivered the punchline: "And by the way, my heart is doing just fine."
Sanders has also injected some of those waggish asides into the sharper stretches of his stump speech.
"Today we tell Donald Trump," Sanders said, before stopping himself.
"What can we tell Donald Trump?," he asked, in mocking exasperation. "See, if I use a profane word, I'll get in trouble. All right, all right, he's an idiot. You made me say it. But in this case, I'm going to tell the media you made me say it. It's their fault."
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., addresses supporters during an election rally on the campus of Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Friday, November 8.
Some things do not change. Sanders' leadership team, as it did in 2016, operates in a near-constant state of vigilance when it comes to mainstream press coverage of his campaign.
"As we have said from the beginning, this is a campaign built to win and planning to win," campaign manager Faiz Shakir told CNN last month, as Sanders returned to the trail. "We've been steadily and consistently executing our strategy, even while the media analysis of our campaign has been in disarray."
But all is not status quo inside the Sanders campaign.
During a recent visit to his campaign office in Washington, DC, Sanders sat and chatted with a group of lower-level staffers. When others began to migrate from across the room for a closer listen, a top aide recalled, Sanders decided to stick around a little longer and give a similar pep talk to those who missed out on the first round.
The aide, who has been with the senator since 2016, acknowledged that a candidate -- Sanders included -- talking to his the staff was not out of the ordinary. But in the aftermath of Sanders' heart attack, the tone of those conversations has changed.
"There was a moment of time where his voice, his vision, his fight was taken away. And that was something that jarred people into realizing that there's this amazing opportunity that we have to fight for the progressive future that we all want," the aide told CNN.
That newfound ability to pull his devoted team closer should not be confused with a softening of the edges. Sanders the progressive pugilist welcomed news of billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's prospective run as one might expect: acidly.
"Oh, my goodness. How important, how monumental that he's running for president," Sanders said, mimicking a credulous broadcaster, at Drake University.
If a candidate with fewer resources entered the race, Sanders added, his voice turned down, "nobody would give a damn."