NORTHAMPTON — With the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary passed and Super Tuesday on the horizon, Valley supporters of Bernie Sanders are backing the Vermont senator as the best candidate to defeat President Donald Trump.
The Feb. 3 Iowa caucus, hampered by technical difficulties and delayed results, saw Sanders win the popular vote among the Democrats, though Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was awarded one more state delegate than Sanders. Sanders and Buttigieg have both requested a recanvass of select Iowa precincts.
Sanders won both the popular vote and the most delegates Tuesday in New Hampshire, edging out Buttigieg by a 1.3 percent margin. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar placed third, while Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former vice president Joe Biden placed third and fourth, respectively.
Patty Healy, a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, said she is “very enthusiastic” about Sanders’ chances of securing the nomination and defeating Trump in the general election.
“I think what’s interesting is that he’s been able to appeal to a broad cross-section of people, and there’s been much said about the attraction of young voters,” Healy said.
Healy spent nine days volunteering for Sanders’ campaign in Iowa prior to the caucus, calling the pivotal election cycle a “now or never” moment.
Healy believes Sanders’ support for issues such as canceling student debt, universal health care and rejection of corporate funding have helped to push the Vermont senator to the front of the Democratic race.
But the packed field of nominees may also prove an obstacle to Sanders, she added.
“I think they’ll be a really significant challenge to Bernie,” Healy said of the other candidates. “I think there are a lot of forces against him, but I’m hopeful.”
Christopher Martin, a member of the Pioneer Valley Democratic Socialists of America, said he is excited to see Sanders pushing for the nomination.
“I was very excited about his campaign in 2016, but I think that he is taking the campaign much more seriously this time around,” Martin said. “I think that in 2016 he was running off of a message campaign and didn’t realize he actually had a shot until after the Iowa results, but with this he’s spent the last four years preparing.”
Martin added, “I think he has the best chance to resoundingly beat Trump in November,” adding that Sanders has been successful in attracting a diverse voter base.
“He’s proving that he can shore up a true coalition of voters that can go on to wash Trump out of office in November,” Martin said.
Northampton resident Joel Spiro, who canvassed for Sanders in 2016 and said he continues to find the candidate “impressive,” is taking a more cautious approach.
“I’m in a very ‘waiting and watching’ mode,” Spiro said, “and the reason for that is for me, the priority above all is to beat Trump.”
Regardless of who wins the most delegates, Spiro urged voters to give their support to whichever Democratic candidate ends up facing Trump in the general election.
“Some (candidates) you may like more than others, but the issue is who can beat Trump,” Spiro said. “If Trump wins, we can kiss democracy goodbye. It’s pretty serious.”
Spiro said he has not decided who among the candidate pool has the best chance at meeting that priority, but said that Sanders has “a strong base.”
“The question always being asked is, can he go beyond his base?” Spiro asked. “And I think over the next month, we’ll be able to see on Super Tuesday.”
Fourteen states, including Massachusetts, will hold primaries on that day, March 3, covering more than one-third of the U.S. population.
But for others, Sanders already stands out as the best candidate to defeat Trump and move the country forward.
“I feel like we’re going to need a gigantic movement of people to get behind a candidate if we’re going to beat Trump, and so far, I feel like Bernie is the only person who’s demonstrated the ability to do that,” said Rose Bookbinder, a co-director of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center.
Bookbinder also spoke of Sanders as the only candidate whose speeches focus on “real issues, like Medicare for All, ending deportation, supporting workers’ rights — real, substantive issues that matter to people, and it’s inspiring to watch.”
Bookbinder also believes that Warren is a good candidate, but she does not feel that the Massachusetts senator has garnered the necessary support to be a viable presidential candidate.
“I hope that Warren and Bernie supporters can see we have very similar values and goals for where we want this country to go,” she said.
Amherst resident Susan Seigel, a member of the Progressive Democrats of America, said that she sees Sanders as “one of the best candidates to go up against Trump.”
Seigel also supports Warren, but like Bookbinder, does not believe that the Massachusetts senator has the voter support to go up against Trump.
“I think that between the two most progressive candidates, Bernie is the one,” Seigel said.
Like Spiro, Seigel encouraged voters to back whichever Democratic candidate wins the nomination.
“I think it’s really important that people say… we’re going to support not just Bernie, but whoever the final nominee is. We will put our support on that Democratic nominee.
“It’s a cop-out to say, ‘I’m not going to vote because my candidate didn’t win,” she said.