L take, this guy has been on more committees than most (if not all) of the current Senators. He understands well. If you have ever written him a letter and asked him direct questions you would know. Dude is a literal power house that nobody has heard of because he does his job unlike many other “popular” ones.
I don’t know about where you are, but Bernie support in my group of friends and otherwise is still pretty strong and I live on the other side of the country. I don’t know if “nobody has heard of” him, but I know that people in power frequently try to subvert and de-fang him because he doesn’t accept the status quo and seems to be open to changing the system.