If Sanders backers are enjoying his new status as front-runner, few of them are taking it for granted. William Lasley, who’d driven an hour from Greensboro to attend, told me that the course of the primary so far showed that Sanders had debunked the main attack against him.

“It used to be people opposing Bernie would use the electability argument against him, but Bernie and his supporters have proven that is false,” Lasley told me. “Bernie is the electable candidate.”

But when I asked whether Sanders was really going to be able to finish what he started in 2016, I heard a lot more of “I hope so” than “yes.” Nikki West of Raleigh had to catch herself. “This time I would hope—” She stopped. “We are going to win. Since 2016, the momentum is different. The movement is bigger. It has grown.”

At the Bloomberg rally, by contrast, everyone was by definition a newcomer, because the businessman turned politician only declared his candidacy in late November. But he is already proving able to draw large, if not Sanders-size, crowds in North Carolina. There were 700 people in Raleigh, according to the campaign; another 500 in Greensboro; and another 700 in Winston-Salem—at 7 a.m. in the rain, no less. The Raleigh crowd was dotted with current and former elected officials, including the past three mayors, and former Democratic Governor Bev Perdue introduced Bloomberg.

Bloomberg has placed a heavy emphasis on the Old North State, opening eight offices and visiting several times. He showed his familiarity by talking about how important it was to win North Carolina in the fall, and also commending not just the state’s specialty of barbecue pork but the distinctive, and superior, eastern variety—vinegar, no tomato. (He’s not a Tar Heel just yet. Earlier in the day, he mistakenly called Greensboro “Gainsborough,” perhaps confusing it with the great 18th-century painter whose work he may own.)

I expected to meet a lot of new converts who had switched their allegiance from Joe Biden or another candidate in recent weeks, and there were plenty. But a number of attendees told me they’d been on board since Bloomberg’s entrance in the race. They cited his record on gun control and climate change, and they dismissed concerns about his fortune, saying they were happy he was spending it to defeat the president.

“I hope he can beat Trump,” Betty Mittag of Raleigh told me. “He’s given his money to good causes. I don’t have any prejudice against rich people.”

But among the political veterans and former elected officials in the crowd, there was more than just affection for Bloomberg—there was also edginess about Sanders. They worried that Sanders would be another George McGovern, not only leading the national ticket to defeat but dooming down-ballot Democrats like Governor Roy Cooper, who is up for reelection.