When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced last week that he would be making a landmark speech on democratic socialism on Wednesday, reporters and Democratic campaign strategists collectively scratched their heads.

Why would a candidate give a major speech about an ideology for which his bona fides are already second to none?

After all, the voters who already identify with Sanders democratic socialist vision are almost certainly already aware that he is a professed adherent.

Whats more, Sanders already delivered a similar address in November 2015 . He defined democratic socialism then in much the same way he did on Wednesday: As a completion of Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal, which set out to house, educate and provide medical care to every American as a matter of right, but which never quite got there.

A Democratic campaign strategist, who is not now working for any presidential candidates, expressed agreement with the themes of Sanders speech but bafflement at the timing or function it served.

Im not exactly sure what the point of this speech at this moment is. Its a speech out of nowhere, said the strategist, who asked for anonymity for professional reasons. And I think its reflective of the state of Bernies candidacy at this point. One of Bernies biggest challenges is advancing his message beyond 2016, and he seems incapable of doing that.

The Sanders campaign insisted that the speech was not a response to a particular event or competition from any one candidate so much as a fresh opportunity to demystify democratic socialism, an ideology with which Sanders has genuinely identified for decades and would thus have to reckon with one way or another.

And unlike in 2015, when Donald Trump s presidential election was still a distant possibility, Sanders could now frame his worldview as an antidote to the same right-wing forces that FDR successfully faced down.

Perhaps more important, Sanders now finds himself in a crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates, many of whom are laying claim to the progressive mantle that was his alone in the 2016 campaign.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have all voiced support on the campaign trail for single-payer health care, albeit with more caveats than Sanders.

Warren has matched his proposal for tuition-free college and upped the ante, with a plan to cancel the majority of student loans, which she would pay for with a 2% wealth tax.

Recently, the Massachusetts senator has begun to climb in the polls. A Des Moines Register poll that came out Saturday showed her just 1 percentage point behind Sanders among Iowa Caucus voters. And a Monmouth University survey of Nevada voters that came out Wednesday showed her overtaking Sanders for the first time in any poll. (Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the pack in nearly all polling of the first four primary states.)

At Warrens largest rally to date, in Oakland, California, on May 31, a number of attendees told HuffPost they had voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary. The sisters Liz and Laura Beggs, who went to see Warren together, saw Sanders as the only progressive choice in 2016.

But with Warren in the race, Laura, a designer, said she could now match her progressive policy convictions, including support for Medicare for All, with her desire to elect a woman president.

The field for too long has been dominated by white men, she said. I would just fucking love to see a woman in the Oval Office.

Liz, a human resources professional, nodded in agreement. Sanders policies have moved more mainstream, and so I dont have to rely on him to find that.