In The Perfect Tie, Ceaser and Busch wrote of the 2000 cross-party competition between Bill Bradley and John McCain for the votes of New Hampshire independents.
In New Hampshire, where Sanders remains in the lead according to public polling averages, Sanders campaign strategists genuinely believe they can win over some Trump supporters by speaking to their economic angst. A Sanders campaign source said field teams meet undecided voters all the time who are choosing between Sanders and Trump.
The campaign in the Granite State has even written a campaign pitch for volunteers to use when they meet voters like that, which the source insisted is a frequent occurrence.
In Iowa, where Hillary Clinton leads, there’s no such formalized effort to win over Trump supporters. A source with the Iowa Sanders campaign said Sanders’s recent talk of Trump was triggered by Trump’s rhetoric, and will return if and when — “when” is more likely, the source said — Trump says something else inflammatory.
But political observers in Iowa say if a Democratic candidate can flip some of Trump’s supporters here, it’s Sanders. Sherry Toelle, chair of the Democratic Party in Iowa’s Republican-leaning Cass County, told BuzzFeed News at a Sanders event in Harlan, Iowa last week that Sanders has the right language for Trump supporters who are worried about the economy.
“His viewpoints and his stressing the importance of the middle class, and stressing all the importance of all the economic reforms, it’s a good starting point,” she said. “Because that’s what a lot of folks are angry about, the economy.”Also see comparisons to Wallace's appeal to supporters of RFK (1968) and McGovern (1972.)
