Boston Globe: “Yes, supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders are hosting house parties and signing petitions this month to show the Vermont independent that his loyal followers are still feeling the Bern and want him to run for president again in 2020.”

“But as Sanders weighs another campaign, some say that even as he has moved the Democratic Party ideologically — pushing issues such as Medicare for all, free college tuition, and a $15 minimum wage into the mainstream — the party has moved past him personally.”

Axios notes another huge factor in calls for Sanders to stand down: New York Times and Politico reports from women who say they faced sexual harassment and sexism in Sanders’ 2016 campaign.

Politico: “Means of Production, the filmmaking cooperative that created the viral campaign video that propelled Ocasio-Cortez’s House campaign, is in talks with the Sanders team about a major role in 2020.”

“And two people who powered Sanders’ record-breaking small-dollar fundraising operation in 2016 have agreed to join a subsequent presidential bid if it materializes, according to a Sanders campaign aide: Tim Tagaris and Robin Curran, his digital fundraising director and digital production director in 2016, respectively.”

“As he seeks to put behind him a series of damaging reports about the mistreatment of female staff members that threatens to undercut another likely White House bid, a political housecleaning appeared underway” in Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) campaign, the New York Times reports.

“Three top advisers from the 2016 campaign either will not return if Mr. Sanders runs in 2020 or will serve in different roles.”

The Barre Montpelier Times Argus, a newspaper in Vermont, is urging Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) not to run for president in 2020.

From the editorial: “Bernie Sanders should not run for president. In fact, we beg him not to.”

“Some of his top congressional supporters won’t commit to backing him if he runs for president again — and two may join the 2020 race themselves. A handful of former aides might work for other candidates. And Bernie Sanders’s initial standing in Iowa polls is well below the 49.6 percent he captured in nearly defeating Hillary Clinton there in 2016,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Sanders may have been the runner-up in the last Democratic primary, but instead of expanding his nucleus of support, in the fashion of most repeat candidates, the Vermont senator is struggling to retain even what he garnered two years ago, when he was far less of a political star than he is today.”

“An insurgent underdog no more, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is laying the groundwork to launch a bigger presidential campaign than his first, as advisers predict he would open the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season as a political powerhouse,” the AP reports.

“A final decision has not been made, but those closest to the 77-year-old self-described democratic socialist suggest that neither age nor interest from a glut of progressive presidential prospects would dissuade him from undertaking a second shot at the presidency. And as Sanders’ brain trust gathered for a retreat in Vermont over the weekend, some spoke openly about a 2020 White House bid as if it was almost a foregone conclusion.”

“I’m not one of those sons of multimillionaires whose parents told them they were going to become president of the United States. I don’t wake up in the morning with any burning desire that I have to be president. If there’s somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I’ll work my ass off to elect him or her. If it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in an interview with New York magazine.

New York Times: “While the list of possible Democratic candidates seems to expand every day, political prognosticators have long assumed there would be a Bernie 2.0.”

“But if Mr. Sanders, 77, was a sensation in 2016, electrifying crowds and awakening fervor on the far left, he is no longer a singular figure among Democrats. Outflanked on the left by rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Beto O’Rourke, his stronghold on the party’s progressive wing has weakened. Many of his key policy positions, including Medicare for All and tuition-free public college, have been embraced by others — a victory for him, he would argue, but one that makes his agenda seem less novel.”

“And while his out-front political presence has kept his name in the mix of 2020 chatter, it has also weakened the anti-establishment appeal he rode to success two years ago.”

During a U.S. Senate candidate forum Monday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would not commit to serving a full six-year term if reelected, Seven Days reports.

Said Sanders: “Right now, my focus is on the year 2018, but if you’re asking me to make an absolute pledge as to whether I’ll be running for president or not, I’m not going to make that pledge. The simple truth is I have not made that decision. But I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I may not run. I may. But on the other hand, I may not.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) warned Democrats of overconfidence in the midterm elections, telling the New York Times, “I happen not to believe that there’s going to be this great blue wave.”

Said Sanders: “But one thing I will absolutely guarantee you: It will not happen if people are sitting back and are cocky and talking about how sure they are of winning.”

Politico: “Touching off a nine-state midterm election blitz here Friday, rally-goers clad in T-shirts from Sanders’ 2016 campaign cheered as the independent senator from Vermont reprised his progressive credentials on student debt, health care and the minimum wage. And they jeered along with Sanders as he mocked Trump — a prelude to a potential 2020 campaign.”

Said Sanders: “Now Trump, he’s a very, very tough guy. He’s a very, very strong guy when he tears little children at the border from the arms of their mothers. What a tough guy. But he ain’t such a tough guy when he has to deal with Putin… He is not such a tough guy when he has to deal with his billionaire friends in Saudi Arabia, who just tortured and murdered a courageous journalist.”

“Bernie Sanders has a problem as he decides whether to run in 2020: Many of his former staffers are looking elsewhere,” Politico reports.

“With the Vermont senator kicking off a nine-state tour on Friday with stops in Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada and California, a sizable contingent of the people who helped build his insurgent 2016 campaign is ambivalent about a second run, according to interviews with more than a dozen former staffers. Many of them are looking for a different progressive champion to finish what Sanders started.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will campaign for Democratic candidates across the country this month at more than 15 planned events in nine states — including a number of presidential primary hot spots, CNN reports.

The Hill: “Allies to Bernie Sanders say the Vermont Independent senator is increasingly likely to make a second bid for the White House in 2020 — once again as a Democrat.”

“Sanders allies increasingly talk more confidently about the likelihood of a second presidential bid. Just a few months ago, the allies were more careful about his potential candidacy.”

“Bernie Sanders is sputtering. Two years after his defeat in the 2016 presidential primary, the Vermont senator has amassed a growing string of losses in races in which he has intervened,” Politico reports.

“Beginning last year, Sanders-backed candidates faltered in an Omaha mayoral race and a nationally watched House race in Montana. Then came Rep. Tom Perriello’s loss in Virginia’s gubernatorial primary, and in June, the drubbing in Iowa of Pete D’Alessandro, a top adviser to Sanders during his 2016 Iowa caucus campaign.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) former presidential campaign manager told C-SPAN that the Vermont independent is considering another presidential run.

Said Jeff Weaver: “Nationally, he is considering another run for the presidency. When the time comes I think we’ll have an answer to that. But right now he’s still considering it.”

Weaver’s new book, How Bernie Won, is just out.