Sanders hopes early strength will prove he can beat Trump

LAS VEGAS — Terry Reece has long been skeptical that voters would back Bernie Sanders, a 78-year-old self-described democratic socialist who is just months removed from a heart attack. “The reason that we are going to win here in Nevada, with your help, the reason that we are going to win the Democratic nomination, with your help, the reason we are going to beat Trump is we have an agenda that speaks to the needs of working families, not the billionaire class,” Sanders told a crowd at the University of Nevada Las Vegas on Tuesday. And if the message goes out, ‘Your choices are you either need to be for a revolution or you must be for the status quo,’ I don’t think most of us see ourselves in that picture.” But as the Democratic contest unfolds, many voters may see a win as a win and make their decisions accordingly, said Tim Miller, a former strategist with Jeb Bush’s failed Republican presidential campaign in 2016. “I do think the American people are hungry for someone who will take on the political and economic elite.” Weaver said Sanders wins about one-quarter of Republicans in his home state in Vermont and noted that he won 23 states in the long 2016 Democratic primary against Clinton. “Some of the moderates say, ‘We’ve seen the polls and we want Bernie Sanders here in the general election,’” Weaver said.