US: To win New Hampshire, Warren has to go through Sanders

Elizabeth Warren has to defeat fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders to secure a bid to challenge US President Donald Trump in the upcoming elections. The challenge for Warren is to somehow outshine Sanders in a state where he has a long record of enthusiastic and durable backing.

New Hampshire: Elizabeth Warren's path to victory may have to go through fellow progressive Bernie Sanders. And after Sanders' strong showing in Iowa, that path became far more difficult heading into Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

The challenge for Warren is to somehow outshine Sanders in a state where he has a long record of enthusiastic and durable backing. There isn't much daylight between them to do that on the big issues that most excite the Democratic Party's liberal wing: universal, government-run health insurance under “Medicare for All,” tuition-free college and aggressive plans to fight climate change.

Sanders, a Vermont senator, also has a yawning financial advantage. His campaign announced raking in $25 million in January alone — more than seven times the fundraising goal of $3.5 million that Warren set for herself over the same period. Sanders' strong performance in Monday's Iowa caucuses could mean a fundraising bump for him, while Warren will have a harder time exciting donors about her third-place finish in Iowa.

Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, has more than 1,000 staffers in 31 states and says she has the sprawling political organization to compete nationwide. But maintaining such a large staff is costly and, even if she can afford it, having the most impressive ground game of any candidate didn't help her much in Iowa.

Indeed, Warren has shunned traditional, large fundraisers and relied instead mostly on small donations made online — a model similar to Sanders'. That means Warren's core supporters can keep donating to her in modest amounts for the long haul, though some may not want to without seeing results.

Read: Democrat nominees Senator Sanders and Mayor Buttigieg in virtual tie in Iowa

Her campaign says it softens the financial blow from having a large staff and payroll by not spending money on things other candidates are, like outside pollsters, consultants or advertisers. It acknowledged canceling some advertising but pointed to a digital ad it released Wednesday featuring 2010 footage of then-President Barack Obama praising Warren's work as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency the senator considers one of the highlights of her career.

Some of Warren's top allies now see room for her support to grow, arguing that Biden's failure to crack the top three in Iowa gives her a chance to appeal to Democrats who were holding out for someone more “electable” to beat President Donald Trump in November's general election.

In the meantime, Warren won't say she needs a first-place finish in New Hampshire. “This isn’t about the numbers as much as it is about the people, the enthusiasm," she said.

Sanders, whose strong tactical organization in Iowa helped propel him, has demonstrated to an even greater degree that he is playing a long game. He said he would have liked to have seen higher turnout in Monday's Iowa caucuses but was heartened to see that participation by voters under 29 years old had increased, calling it a “good start.”

Sanders trounced Hillary Clinton by 22 points in New Hampshire during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary and has already predicted victory in New Hampshire and Nevada. Vermont borders New Hampshire, but so does Massachusetts, meaning both Warren and Sanders are known political commodities.

But both have stressed unity. Warren even recalls Sanders' protracted primary battle with Clinton in proclaiming, “We've got to pull together as a party. We cannot repeat 2016.”

Two areas in which Warren has drawn a contrast with Sanders are in noting that she's hired many former staffers from candidates who left the race and in saying she can beat Trump as a woman.

She had pointed out that female candidates have done better in recent cycles than their male counterparts, especially in 2018, when they helped Democrats retake the House.

(With inputs from AFP)