Those five words are why he will.
Unlike other “old school Democrats”, he’s the only one ACTUALLY willing to stand up, say what a majority of voters want to hear (i.e.: free stuff, incarcerate everyone they don’t like), and _mean_it_.
If you think the current voter base recoils at the term “Democratic Socialist”, you’ve not been paying attention. Half of citizens get free stuff and want to keep it that way, and a sufficient chunk of the rest either think they should be getting free stuff to, or think a good chunk of the remainder should be in jail for whatever reason (are rich, own guns, are racist (by whatever definition including simply being of some skin color), or “deny climate change”).
I am very afraid you are right! This country is very close to the point where creeping socialism will not be reversible and will lead to the train wreck known as Venezuela.