I found a really interesting post by data wunderkind Nate Silver on how demographics can help predict primary results. He said that assuming a race that is tied, nationally, Hillary Clinton should have won Nevada by three points. She won by 5.5 points, implying a 2.5-point national lead, which is reasonably in line with the RealClear Politics average of polls, and especially the most recent Quinnipiac poll. So for all Bernie supporters, all is not lost.

Reading about it got me thinking about the “Clinton Firewall” that is South Carolina, on Feb. 27th, and Super Tuesday, on March 1st. Many media pundits expect a Hillary landslide in most of those states to be the boost needed to give her an open lane to the Democratic Party nomination. But they forgot one thing: Some of these Super Tuesday states have open primaries or caucuses. In these states, any registered voter, even Republicans, can ask for the Democratic ballot as they sign in, and they will receive one. It opens the door for a coordinated push to convince registered Republicans to vote in the Democrat primary (instead of the Republican one), ostensibly for someone not named Hillary Clinton.

The following Super Tuesday states have an open primary or caucus: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. (South Carolina is also open, but the Republican primary has already happened, making it legally impossible for many Republicans to vote on their Democrat ballot – but if they haven’t voted, yet, they can legally vote on Saturday!)

There are three ways you can market Bernie to Republican (and Republican-leaning Independent) friends and family members in those states. Depending on the person you’re marketing Bernie to, it makes sense to only use one or two of these:

1. Bernie is the best overall candidate. This is the route I took on my own, as have some other Republicans; see the Republicans for Bernie groups on Reddit and Facebook. Considering the oversize influence big money interests have in shaping policy, money in politics is the biggest issue in politics, today. We need a candidate who refuses corporate and billionaire funding of campaigns; in this race, only Trump, Carson, and Sanders do that. Carson thinks the Egyptian pyramids are grain silos, and wouldn’t make a good President, IMO. I wanted to support Donald Trump, but his support for banning Muslim immigration dropped him off the map for me. Sanders, as a person, seems reasonable enough for me, so that’s why I support him. (His platform is pretty good, too.)

2. The Republican race has become a circus. And I’m not just talking about the entertainment value. In my opinion, depending on how many delegates Trump can win in state elections, the convention will either be a Trump coronation, or bitterly contested. In South Carolina, three candidates got at least 20% of the vote, and there’s no sign of that fragmentation leaving on Super Tuesday, forward. So instead of voting for a Republican, especially if you are undecided between their candidates, anyway, why not choose to skip that whole jumble, and…

3. Make the primary more painful for Hillary, and easier for the eventual Republican nominee. The primary challenge that Hillary Clinton has had to face has placed enormous strain on her fundraising operations. Why vote against Hillary once, when you could legally do it twice, and further strain her fundraising operations at the same time? That way, if Hillary gets the nomination, she will have been weakened, and easier to defeat in the general election. If Bernie gets the nomination, and he’s unelectable, like a lot of people think, he’ll lose to any Republican. So either way, you win, right?

Now that sound weird to many people, where one reason is meant to encourage Sanders to win, and another one’s designed to basically convince people he will lose. (Personally, I think he’s a more electable Democrat than Hillary, but I’m in the minority.) So that’s why you need to tailor your argument for the specific person you’re talking to. But if deployed properly, it can really help Bernie Sanders get more delegates than he’d otherwise get, and at least make it tougher for Hillary to get the nomination.