Bernie Sanders is the front-runner in several Democratic primary polls for Iowa and New Hampshire, is within striking distance of first in Nevada, and has cut Joe Biden’s national lead to single digits.

That’s a sentence I could have already written a few weeks ago — but since then, a lot has changed. First, Sanders became the face of opposition to Donald Trump’s military strikes against Iran, working with Rep. Ro Khanna to introduce the No War Against Iran Act. Then, he spoke out against Trump’s plan to cut Social Security. Both of these stands against Trump are enormously popular with the Democratic base and with the broader set of voters Sanders needs to win in November.

And both of these stands have also drawn attention to Joe Biden, who voted for George W. Bush’s disastrous Iraq War, and who has repeatedly called for cuts to Social Security. Sanders, favorably positioned in the polls, is fighting two major battles against the front-runner, and he is on the right side of both of them, and this is happening just days before the Democratic primary voting begins.