There’s a new poll just out that shows Sanders beats Trump by 8 points, 50 to 42 among 5459 registered voters. The same spread as Biden. Warren and Harris barely edge out Trump, Warren by 2 points, Harris by 1. Trump edges out Buttigieg by 1. This is now a consistent pattern in the polling. Sanders and Biden both beat Trump by a good margin, the rest of the field, not so much.

According to the new poll, Sanders beats Trump among people who self-report as “poor” by a two to one margin, 61% to 30%, and by 13 points, 52% to 39%, among registered voters who self-reported as “working class”. In both categories, a wider margins than Biden.

Among independent voters, Sanders leads Trump by 10 points, among single parents by 25, among union households by 9. Among families with at least one LGBT member, Sanders leads Trump by 50 points – 12 points more than Buttigieg.

The “Sanders is unelectable” argument only makes sense if you ignore the polling. If you ignore the polling, and look at any other metric – donor data for example – Sanders is crushing Biden and every other candidate.

Sanders is slightly behind only in cash raised, and not by a significant margin, and nearly every one of his over two million donors can keep giving. Candidates relying on big donors often can’t tap them again, they’ve already given the maximum.

When Sanders talks, he moves people. When he went on Fox News, the moderators tried to ambush him, but he turned the tables and won the audience over.

He went on the Joe Rogan Experience less than a week ago. That episode has more than 8 million views already. For comparison, the highest rated show on Fox News has an average viewership of just 3.15 million.

Rogan’s audience is right-wing. His typical guests range from Alex Jones and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, to Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson. He’s had some lefty people on, but few and far between. Of the all time most viewed Rogan podcasts, Alex Jones is #2 and #6, Ben Shapiro is #3. This is a significantly right-wing audience. Sanders is already at #9 and climbing.

Since it posted, the Sanders episode has received 301,000 likes to 36,000 dislikes – 89% positive. There are 149,000+ comments, the overwhelming majority of them positive. Go look. Don’t take my word for it.

Could Biden do that? Could Harris, Buttigieg or Booker? Could Warren? No. Not a chance.

Sanders is expanding the base and winning people over. The rest of the field are still just fighting over traditional Democrats, many of them in the blue no matter who crowd. The people every Democratic candidate can count on.

They’re not expanding the base. They’re not going after independents. They’re not going after Trump’s base and winning them overs.

Sanders is winning where it matters – on the ground.