There are some other things transpiring in American politics right now. But we must note that Democratic leaders are now unabashedly stating what Bernie Sanders supporters said over and over in 2020: the party pushed Joe Biden primarily to stop Bernie.
Bernie drew in crowds in the reddest of states. And without the DNC dog piling on Biden he was likely to win.
Crowd size is not a sound method for predicting voting results.
The fact is his message resonated regardless of political ideology.
I lived in MAGA country in 2016 and when they found out I was a Bernie supporter they told me they liked him, both for his hatred of billionaires and for his steadfast adherence to his principles even if they didn’t agree with him.
That I agree with. Any certainty he would have won in red states is misplaced though, elections are not that predictable. He might have. He might not have. He certainly wouldn’t have gained support from anti-communist types though, and that line of attack would have been employed heavily by the repubs. They do it anyway even with neolib dems.