Battle of the runner-ups Sanders vs Cruz

[Thunderbird is the word]

How would a Bernie vs Cruz race have gone down?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bernie wins by enough that Democrats take both chambers of Congress.

[Bismarck]

Bernie wins by enough that Democrats take both chambers of Congress.

Mhmm sure.

[Medal506]

Cruz would have crushed him

[Mr. Smith]

See 2004...minus New Mexico and Colorado, give or take Nevada.

[Pericles]

Bernie wins Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Cruz does worse, not better, in Nevada and does not win any states Clinton won IOTL, Berbie beats him by around 4-5 points, maybe Florida also goes to Bernie. Kander, McGinty and Feingold win giving Democrats control of the Senate.

[ReaganLimbaugh]

Cruz would have crushed him

^^^^ is right.

[TheSaint250]

It's hard to say.  I feel like Sanders could have edged out a win though by calling Cruz a right-wing fascist or something and yelling FREE STUFF and BILLIONAYUS every five seconds.

[Skill and Chance]

Bernie EV win/Cruz PV win.

[Adam Griffin]

Cruz is an absolute creep - how is this even a debate? The only reason Democrats "lost" was because we hemorrhaged votes in areas disproportionately influential on the Electoral College while gaining a bunch of moderate votes in suburban areas that literally made no difference in the EV outcome. Those votes lost were much more receptive to a Sanders/Trump message while the votes gained were much more receptive to a Clinton one.

I'm not sure how receptive they would have been to a Cruz message, simply because - while the contrast would have been greater - Cruz has a punchable face and a smarmy demeanor backed by awful policies himself. I'm sure "muh socialism" would have scared the NIMBYs in Fairfax, Gwinnett, Orange and Harris relative to Clinton's performance, but not much beyond the margins Obama received there in 08/12, if that (and even then, it wouldn't matter).

Cruz's creepy evangelism and hard-line austerity/GOP orthodoxy would have kept Rust Belt workers and suburbanites alike from drifting too far from the mean one way or another, and with that, #BernieWouldHaveWon. Easily.