Tim Canova became one of the heroes of Bernie Sanders’ anti-establishment primary crusade when Sanders endorsed his bid to challenge then-DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz last April.
And on Tuesday, Canova’s long-shot attempt will come to a head when he and Wasserman Schultz face off in the Democratic House primary for Florida’s 23rd Congressional district. Despite Sanders’ nominal blessing and the growing thrust of anti-establishment politics, Wasserman-Schultz is still favored to beat Canova — a Sun Sentinel poll released last weekend showed her leading by 10 points.
Canova’s bid was viewed by some as a proxy for the battle between Sanders and Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary. But even as the stakes of Canova’s challenge grew with Sanders’ backing, Sanders’ support was less forthcoming than the upstart Florida Democrat would have liked.
Canova told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday that he still thinks he has “realistic chance” of winning.
“Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are not on the ballot,” Canova said on CNN’s “Wolf.” “In fact, back in March when we had the presidential primary, Bernie Sanders didn’t even have a field operation in our district and I think he only had one field office in all of South Florida. Compare that with our operation, we have the largest field operation in the entire country for any House campaign.”
Despite the frustrations, Canova undoubtedly benefited from Sanders fundraising heft, limited as it may have been. The Canova campaign announced it had received over 100,000 individual donations totaling over $2.25 million between April and July — unprecedented numbers for House primary, made possible in large part by the intermittent appeals made by Sanders. For example, a single Sanders fundraising email in May brought in $225,000, roughly 10% of the total over that 6 month span.
Canova told Blitzer that he hasn’t direct communication with Sanders since he dropped out, but that his office’s “phone is ringing off the hook” because of how it’s resonating with voters.
For her part, Wasserman-Schultz largely dropped out of the national spotlight after the DNC hack forced her resignation during the Democratic convention.