Is Bernie Sanders the first candidate to win the first three states in a competitive primary? I saw this float around Facebook. It seems it originated from the Twitter account of People For Bernie, > Bernard Sanders is the only candidate in history (in a competitive primary) to win the popular vote in the first 3 states. - People For Bernie I went looking to corroborate it and it seems only NewsWeek is repeating the claim and their source may just be the Tweet above as it's cited in the article, > BERNIE SANDERS BECOMES FIRST CANDIDATE, DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN, TO WIN POPULAR VOTE IN ALL 3 THREE EARLY VOTING STATES It goes on to explain this, > The Vermont senator garnered primary popular vote victories in Iowa on February 3, New Hampshire on February 11 and Nevada on Saturday -- a first among any Republican or Democrat in history. Keeping the claim at the "popular vote" - is that still true? Has no other Democrat or Republican won the first three states in the primary?

**No** , Bernie Sanders is not the first candidate to win the popular vote in the first 3 state primary elections or caucuses in a competitive year. For instance, as user Tgr points out, Jimmy Carter won the first 3 contests in 1980 despite facing stiff competition from Ted Kennedy.

Depending on the definition of "competitive primary" used (which neither source articulates), there are potentially several more examples. For instance, as the Newsweek article itself notes, Al Gore won the first 3 contests against Bill Bradley in 2000.