BURLINGTON, VT—Bernie Sanders, the longtime independent Senator, declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, complicating former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s expected smooth path through the primaries.

“Make no mistake about it, this throws a monkey wrench in O’Malley’s plans,” said Ritchie Oriol, professor of political science at UNLV. “O’Malley figured he could run towards the center, win every primary, and save his money for the general election. Now he’s got to fight off Sanders from the left.”

Oriol stressed that Sanders was unlikely to win. “He probably doesn’t have a viable path to the nomination, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a disruptive force for O’Malley.”

According to Oriol, the real concern would be “if someone else, an even stronger candidate, were to enter the Democratic primaries. Then we can start to come up with realistic scenarios where O’Malley loses the nomination.”



Sanders: a “legitimate threat” to Martin O’Malley’s presidential hopes