It won't take much to convince U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to renew his bid for the White House in 2020. The reason: his intense dislike of president Donald Trump.
Both men are polar opposites. Sanders is an avowed liberal who rails against income inequality. Tump, on the other hand, is a racially motivated Republican billionaire whose ideology is to oppose anything liberals propose.
Sanders earlier this year said he'll "probably run" for president in 2020, "if it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Trump."
His avid supporters, many of whom worked for his 2016 presidential campaign, this early have launched a movement to convince Bernie to run again. And, hopefully, to win -- and win big in 2020.
Diehard loyalist supporters of the Vermont senator have launched a campaign to convince the feisty Independent to run for U.S. President.
"We have two goals," said Rich Pelletier, one of the four main organizers of Organizing For Bernie movement. "One, we want to show the support is there. The second is to begin to do the organizing that is going to need to happen for him to hit the ground running, by the time he announces -- if he announces."
Pelletier and his like-minded colleagues want to have an organization in each state, territory and city ready to campaign for Sanders from the get go.
They're now laying the groundwork to launch a much bigger presidential campaign than Sanders' first in 2016. Some are so confident of a win they predict that Sanders, 77, will open the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season as the heavy favorite to secure the nomination.
Sources said neither age nor a crowded candidate field will dissuade Sanders from a second shot at the presidency. Sanders' brain trust met at a retreat in Vermont over the weekend to map out strategies..
This time, he starts off as a front-runner or one of the front-runners, said John Weaver, Sanders' 2016 campaign manager. He said Sanders' 2020 campaign will be a much bigger campaign if he runs again, in terms of the size of the operation.
The first order of the day is to build an organizational structure so Sanders can start campaigning at a moment's notice. His loyalists in the Organizing for Bernie movement obviously believe their man will run again and don't just plan on gathering names but want to start building a national organization.
In 2016, Sanders enchanted crowds with thunderous speeches against the "billionaire class," income inequality and corporate greed. He won 22 state primaries and took over 13 million votes in what was a two-person race against Hillary Clinton. Hillary, by the way, has indicated her intent to run for president in 2020.
