Election Forecaster David Wasserman: Sanders Would ‘Take Florida Off the Table’ for Democrats

Seasoned election forecaster David Wasserman has claimed that if Senator Bernie Sanders is the Democratic nominee, President Donald Trump will win the crucial state of Florida. The House Editor for the Cook Political Report made the remarks on MSNBC’s Morning Joe about the Nevada caucus.

“Dave Wasserman, so tell me. Let’s dig a little bit deeper into what you said before,” host Joe Scarborough said. “You talked about on the first ballot only about a third of a choice for Bernie Sanders. So if this was a primary we’d be talking about Bernie getting in the low 30s instead of in the high 40s if it were a primary instead of a caucus.”

“As you dig into those numbers and pick them apart, what do you see there? How broad is that coalition? Is he still coming up short with black voters or with Hispanics, or is he really building a sort of coalition, especially focusing on the first ballot votes that all he’ll get in primaries, is he really building an expansive coalition that can help sweep him to the nomination?”

“A couple things. First, the fact that he won 40% — 47% of the delegates is on track to win a majority of delegates out of Nevada could be replicated in a primary where he wins only about a third of the vote,” Wasserman said.

“Because there are so many zombie candidates he ends up with close to half of the delegates. That could be true as well. I would take issue with the notion he’s bringing a ton of new voters into the process. There’s not evidence we’re seeing turnout that is any higher than we saw for example in ‘08, in fact, well short of that level of turnout in Iowa, in Nevada, in New Hampshire and to the extent higher turnout than past years, it’s typically been in suburban moderate areas where we’re seeing former Kasich and Rubio voters potentially cross over and vote for candidates like Pete or Amy.”

“That is really the irony here. That’s where the Democratic Party has been growing, in these suburban moderate areas of the country, higher income, higher education. That is not Bernie Sanders’ coalition. In a way, turning back the clock to a working class support to try to win these upper Midwestern states. Whereas, as you pointed out earlier, Joe, I think Bernie kinda takes Florida off the table and puts it into Trump’s column.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.