Pollster Frank Luntz Predicts Bernie Sanders Will Be The 2020 Democratic Nominee

The first primary votes won’t be cast for nearly nine months, but pollster Frank Luntz is ready to make a prediction about who will win the 2020 Democratic nomination. And if he’s right, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) might want to start rehearsing his acceptance speech.

“The Democrats who have moved to the left are in tune with the Democratic Party,” the longtime Republican pollster told Howard Kurtz on Fox News. “They’re just not in tune with mainstream America.”

The result will be a Sanders victory for the Democratic nomination ― ironically driven in part by the same fears that helped President Donald Trump win in 2016.

Luntz said:

The public is really frustrated about being forgotten or left behind. And those two emotions, which elected Donald Trump, are alive not just on the right but also on the left. It’s the reason why Bernie Sanders did so well in 2016 and why, I’ll be blunt with you, I think he is the most likely nominee in 2020.

Sanders winning the nomination, however, would be good news for Trump.

“Republicans should want that,” Luntz said. “Sanders cannot appeal to the overall mainstream of the American people.” He added that the GOP should be “scared to death” of candidates like Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who are more mainstream.

Luntz later cracked a joke about his Sanders prediction on Twitter:

Luntz also said Republicans who want to oppose Sanders and the socialist wing of the Democratic Party should no longer attempt to defend the word “capitalism” because it has been “demonized” by the media.

“If you want to oppose socialism, you oppose it by talking about freedom, not capitalism,” he said.

See Luntz’s full discussion with Kurtz below: