DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The urgent fight for the Democratic presidential nomination was raging across Iowa on Sunday as the party’s leading candidates and their allies fanned out across the state to deliver closing arguments centered on the defining question of the 2020 primary: Who is best positioned to defeat President Donald Trump?
Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, emerged as a central figure in the electability debate as new polls showed him gaining strength just eight days before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on Feb. 3. Sanders’ strength sparked a growing sense of concern from his more moderate Democratic rivals, who fear that the 78-year-old Sanders is too radical to beat Trump in a one-on-one matchup this fall.
Stoking those fears, Trump’s campaign on Sunday teased a general election attack against Sanders. The Vermont senator had spent much of the day before campaigning alongside New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the president’s team sent out an email with the title, “Socialist invasion.”
“Why is radical socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spending so much time campaigning for Bernie? Because he’s the godfather of her extreme agenda and socialist vision for America,” the email said.
The night before, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., had addressed more than 1,000 Iowa voters at a raucous event in Ames.