No longer a fringe candidate or an outsider, Bernie Sanders will be under pressure to score decisive victories in early contests for the Democratic nomination or risk seeing his 2020 candidacy deflate.
Sanders' challenge to Hillary Clinton in 2016 gives the 78-year-old independent senator from Vermont higher name recognition than other declared 2020 candidates, and that's made him the early front-runner in the primary campaign.
But he still has to prove he has overcome his previous shortcomings — primarily an inability to win over significant numbers of the women and minority voters that are a key part of the party’s base.