Donald Trump is gearing up for the US general election in November as 11 Democrat contenders are vying to challenge the Republican president. US Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden are neck-in-neck for first place, with US Senator Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg not far behind. But Mr Messina believes the Democrats have no chance of winning if Mr Sanders is elected.

BBC Radio 4 host Nick Robinson asked: “Bernie Sanders seems to be going up in the polls almost relentless, it’s like a tank marching towards you.”

Speaking to the Today programme, Mr Messina said: “The interesting thing about Bernie Sanders is that Iowa has always been a really good state for him.

“In a primary when you have this many candidates, having a base is very, very important.

“Bernie’s challenge is that the view is he would be the worst candidate of all the major Democrats against President Trump in a general election.

“That’s the rationale for the candidacy of Michael Bloomberg, it’s why Joe Biden continues to lead the national polls because Democrats are absolutely desperate to beat Donald Trump.

“Bernie’s challenge is proving to a bunch of naysayers that he can win a general election.

“The issue here isn’t who can excite the base. There’s a stupid debate in my party about do you nominate someone who can excite the base or do you nominate someone who can get people in the middle to vote for them?

“If you look at the last three Democrats to win president, they were able to do both.”

However, Mr Sanders drew a crowd of 3,000 people Saturday night at a star-studded event at Cedar Rapids’ US Cellular Centre.

Many of the mostly young attendees who make up the 78-year-old Sanders’ enthusiastic base wore “Bernie” T-shirts, while others were clad in apparel of the band Vampire Weekend, arguably the true headliners of the event.

The weekend rally was informally dubbed ‘Bern-chella’, after the Coachella music festival.

Mr Sanders told crowds: “The reason we’re going to win here in Iowa, the reason we’re going to win the Democratic nomination, is because we are a campaign of us, not me.

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Tyler Martell, 28, a teacher from Wisconsin, said he was trying to catch several of the Democratic candidates this weekend in Iowa.

He said Sanders’ brand of Democratic socialism would be a tough sell in a general election against Trump, who drew an estimated 6,000 people to the same venue in 2017, after taking office.

Mr Martell said: “I think he would be the least electable out of all them.

“I’m not saying Bernie can’t win, but if Democrats want a sure thing, they should go with somebody else.”

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