Democratic candidates who embraced progressive causes had mixed success in the midterm elections, giving no clear sign about a winning path for Bernie Sanders should he seek the party's nomination in 2020.

As Clare Malone of FiveThirtyEight put it, "the election was an accurate reflection of where the country stands: existentially muddled, politically divided and historically engaged with its politics."

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A sweeping success among candidates backed by the Vermont senator -- or his surrogate organization Our Revolution -- would have been a signal to the Democratic establishment that the country was ready to embrace Sanders' brand of democratic socialism.

That didn't happen.

Ella Nisen wrote for Vox, "Moderate Democratic candidates were the big winners of swing congressional districts in the 2018 midterm elections... Many of the left-wing candidates who tested the theory of turning out their base, even in more conservative districts, lost on election night."

Jim Kessler and Lanae Erickson writing in an opinion piece for The Washington Post also concluded, "progressive populism and democratic socialism underwhelmed in the primaries and were close to shut out in competitive general elections."

With an eye on 2020

Leading up to the midterms, Sanders seemingly spent more time criss-crossing the nation supporting progressive Democrats than he did on his own re-election campaign in Vermont.

Sanders' campaigning for other candidates was seen both as a test of his messaging and building up of his base among voters and Democratic officeholders ahead of 2020.

Two high-profile races featuring candidates backed by Sanders are yet to be decided.

As of Friday afternoon, the Florida governor's race between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis was headed for a recount. Georgia election officials were still counting votes in the governor's race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp.

Health care, but not Medicare for All

Democrats gained a majority in the House on Tuesday in part with a focus on health care, a key issue for Sanders. But the party's message was about protecting Obamacare -- especially coverage of pre-existing conditions -- rather than the Medicare for All approach (government-backed insurance) favored by the Vermont senator.

Sanders, however, walked away from the midterms with a different message.

Sanders told The Guardian about the winners on Tuesday: “It’s not just that many of them are women or people of color – many of them are progressives who won their elections demanding Medicare for All, demanding raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and making public colleges and universities tuition free.”

To each his own.

This headline on a story by Ryan Grim for The Intercept says it best: The midterm results gave everybody just enough to keep fighting.