From Vermont to Nevada, Sanders’ radical agenda is reaching across the country

Editorial: The senator has shown that he can reach across age, race and ideology – and also, crucially, across the nation

Sanders and his wife Jane celebrate as he is declared winner of the Nevada Caucus (Reuters)

Bernie Sanders’ advance to the Democratic nomination may now be unstoppable. His win in Nevada shows that he can reach across age, race and ideology and also, crucially, across the nation.

In just about every way, Nevada is at the other end of the country from Vermont – yet the Vermont senator nailed it. We are just over a week from Super Tuesday, so still in the early stages of the race, but with this momentum, it will be very hard from the other runners to catch him. Anything is possible in American politics, and we have enough experience of seismic upsets to sound a note of caution – but this is big.

Why? Rationally, it might be hard to see why a 78-year-old politician from the union’s second-smallest state by population should gather such support, particularly among the young. But actually, it is not so odd. He hits all the right notes with a jaded generation of young people who want radical change.