Here is where being a maverick seeking the nomination of a party you refuse to actually join has its limits.
Sanders has to yet win an endorsement from a sitting Democratic senator, House member or governor, according to FiveThirtyEight.com’s endorsement tracker. By contrast, Clinton has racked up endorsements from 30 senators, seven governors and more than 100 House members - including the top politicians from Sanders' home state of Vermont: Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., and Gov. Peter Shumlin.
If Sanders should receive the nomination, how many enthusiastic surrogates will stand up for him on the airwaves? How many state party organizations will be lending their muscle on the ground?
"It's very early, the landscape is still shifting, but that no one jumps on board right away — even someone from a home state — is not a good sign of people's confidence in a person's abilities to either do the job or to win the nomination/election," Vavreck, who teaches at the University of California (Los Angeles), emails NBC.
In the 19th century, such splits would lead to the nomination of their own candidate in a rump convention. Who knows what might happen but, given how many elected Democrats complain Obama has not sufficiently supported the party in the past, how will they treat someone who steadfastly separates himself from them?
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