Donovan Slack

USA TODAY

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders first began mulling a run for the Democratic presidential nomination nearly two years ago because he wanted his progressive agenda to be taken more seriously, according to radio host Bill Press, who met with Sanders long before he launched his campaign publicly.

“You can be a senator and you can yap and yap and give speeches, and, you know it’s just another senator,” Press said in an interview with C-SPAN to be aired this weekend. “If you’re a presidential candidate, there’s some aura about that that people listen.”

Press said that Sanders felt passionately that progressive issues such as stemming income inequality should be front and center in the Democratic primary.

“Somebody had to do it, and if somebody else did it, fine,” Press said. “If Elizabeth Warren had run, I’m pretty confident in saying Bernie Sanders never would have run.”

Press, author of the recently released “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down,” hosted meetings with Sanders and political strategists at his home as the Vermont senator was gaming out a potential campaign. (Press said his wife cooked beef stew at one and chicken cacciatore at the other.)

“Everybody was sort of saying this is… worth pursuing, it’s not crazy,” Press recalled. “It’s obviously a real uphill battle – you’re going to be up against the biggest political machine in the country and one of the best and most experienced people in the country, Hillary Clinton…it’s a way, way, way long shot, but it’s not crazy.”

Sanders, of course, is doing better than perhaps even his own advisers thought possible at the time, nearly tying Clinton in Iowa and beating her by a huge margin in New Hampshire. He has also proven adept at raising money from small-dollar donors and outpaced Clinton in fundraising in January.

During last week's Democratic debate, Clinton jabbed Sanders for writing a blurb for Press' book, saying the criticism that Obama has failed progressives is something "I do not expect from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama."

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