By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — It appears that the Presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders came to a close as a result of COVID-19. It's important to note, though, that the campaign had an underlying health issue anyway, according to an Emporia State University political scientist.
"Some states have delayed their primaries, some states have closed down in person caucusing," said Michael Smith. "Wisconsin had a very bizarre election where they held the election as scheduled despite concerns about people gathering. For Bernie Sanders to have this grassroots wave of supporters propelling him to the nomination, which was his plan, first of all, was looking tougher and tougher as Biden picked up more wins, but with the coronavirus precautions, it's virtually impossible."
It's hard to build momentum when people aren't supposed to get together in groups.
"He had the debate, a no audience debate with Joe Biden, where public health kind of dominated the debate," Smith said. "He clearly takes it very seriously. He's not going to out there and have rallies or ask people to stand in long, crowded lines to vote, but yet, his entire campaign strategy depends on that."
Since no one really knows how coronavirus will behave going forward, it will likely be a central issue in the campaign and if a secondary peak in infections were to happen in the fall, it could be the ultimate October surprise.
"If the virus comes back, then absolutely, that's going to throw a lot of questions about the election," Smith said. "With primary elections, local elections and so forth, they tend to have fairly low turnout. Caucuses are another matter. They tend to have fairly low turnout and so, you have more of a stream of people than a crowd, but, general elections, this is really going to be a challenge. I am a strong supporter of voting by mail. I think it's working well in Colorado, Washington and Oregon, but that, too, has become a partisan issue, with Republicans coming forward as being very strongly opposed to it."
Election decisions, much like public health decisions, are made at the local and state level.