Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont had a tremulous couple weeks following the Democratic National Committee's revocation of his voter data files. On the positive side of the campaign's oscillating success, Bernie's team reported reaching 2.3 million individual campaign contributions, the most of any presidential candidate in history.
Initially, it appeared that Mr. Sanders' conflict with the DNC would be a great detriment to the success of his campaign, due obviously to the absence of important voter information, but also because of the difficulty imposed by winning a democratic nomination without the party's approval. A similar problem seems to be starting to nip at the ankles of Mr. Trump. As a result of great public backlash from supporters of Bernie's campaign and threats of a lawsuit from the campaign's officials, the DNC quickly restored data access to Mr. Sanders' campaign.
The DNC granted access to the data files late Saturday night, following the conclusion of the third Democratic debate; Saturday proved to be a great day for Sanders.
During the debate, Mr. Sanders jostled with Hillary Clinton over her disastrous foreign policy decisions during her tenure as Secretary of State. He criticized her decision to vote for authorization of war in Iraq, and her push for the bombings in Libya which caused massive destabilization in the region. His poise and voraciousness during the debate did not go unnoticed either. Bernie swept every online poll conducted to see who voters believed had performed best during the debate.
Senator Sanders has also further closed the gap between himself and Ms. Clinton. In a recent poll from CNN, which blatantly misstates the poll's findings, showed Bernie polling 34 percent of registered Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents compared to Clinton's 50 percent. That gap was much larger at the end of November, with Sanders and Clinton polling 30 percent and 58 percent respectively.
These poll findings are representative of a trend that's unfolding across the nation, indicating a retreat in support for Clinton's campaign and a continuous, steady rise in Sanders' that has been witnessed since the summer.
Even with the DNC's obvious attempt to thwart support and legitimacy from Bernie's campaign, his followers stood by him and saw the debacle as an unintended, unimportant non-issue. Sanders' campaign reacted with veracity to the allegation from the DNC and struck back hard.
Sanders and his staff defeated the DNC's attempt to delegitimize his campaign, proving the strength and support his movement carries. He had a successful debate and rose in the polls.
Now is Sanders' time. The Iowa caucus is quickly approaching and a storm carrying an inevitable slip-up seems to be brewing over Hillary's campaign. Bernie can't trail Ms. Clinton 15-20 points forever. The tenacity that Senator Sanders and his campaign have brought to the race has allowed for his steady rise in support.
Change is coming, lugged through these crucial two months on the back of Mr. Sanders.