The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden looks to South Carolina to turn around campaign
Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.
We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail.
LEADING THE DAY:
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Joe Biden needs a win. And he’s hoping that South Carolina will give it to him.
Since voting began in the Democratic nominating contest earlier this month, the former vice president has seen his long-held frontrunner status slip away and questions about his electability emerge. What’s more, he’s still competing with several candidates for the support of moderate voters, while his chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has largely run away with the progressive vote.
But his campaign argues that South Carolina will be different. Biden’s support among black voters remains strong and black voters are expected to make up a majority of the primary vote in the Palmetto State. He’s also leading the pack in polls here — by double digits in some — and his allies say that a win on Saturday will give him the momentum he needs to emerge as the clear alternative to Sanders heading into Super Tuesday.
But how much the South Carolina primary will weigh on the rest of the race is unclear. Sanders is the favorite to win in delegate-rich Super Tuesday states, like California and Texas, and Biden is still facing a crowded moderate lane that has made it difficult for any one candidate to consolidate support. He’ll also have to contend with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — and his immense personal fortune — on Super Tuesday, a factor that threatens to further divide the centrist vote in the primary.
Sanders, who has supplanted Biden as the frontrunner following back-to-back wins in the New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucuses, is under no illusions about Biden’s strength in the Palmetto State, opting to spend primary day in Virginia rather than stick it out in South Carolina. But that didn’t stop him from going after Biden during a rally in Spartanburg on Thursday, in which he insisted that the former vice president would be a general election liability for Democrats if he wins the nomination.
“I don’t believe that Joe can beat Trump when he voted for the war in Iraq,” Sanders said. “I don’t believe Joe can beat Trump when people understand he voted with NAFTA and [Permanent Normal Trade Relations] with China. Terrible trade agreements that cost us millions of jobs.”
Regardless, Biden and his allies are confident that South Carolina will be a turning point for his campaign. We’ll find out on Saturday.
–Max Greenwood
READ MORE:
Sanders makes the case against Biden ahead of SC primary, by Max Greenwood
Sanders zeroes in on Super Tuesday states, by Jonathan Easley
Sanders, socialism emerge as top targets at CPAC, by Julia Manchester and Tal Axelrod
Sanders’s rise unnerves K Street, by Alex Gangitano
FROM THE TRAIL:
While all eyes will be on South Carolina on Saturday, most of the candidates will already have their sights set on the southern Super Tuesday states. Bloomberg will spend his Saturday morning campaigning in the Washington, D.C.,-suburb of Tysons Corner, Va., before he travels to Charlotte, N.C. Sanders will hold rallies in Norfolk, Va., and Virginia Beach on Saturday afternoon and evening. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) will spend her Saturday making stops in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Biden will also crisscross the South, heading to Selma, Ala., and Norfolk on Sunday, before heading to Texas on Monday. Former South Bend Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg will hold a virtual town hall from South Carolina on Saturday before heading to Nashville, Raleigh, N.C., and Dallas.
FROM CONGRESS AND THE STATES:
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) officially threw his support behind Biden on Friday, days before Virginians go to vote in their state’s Democratic primary. “I will vote in the Virginia presidential primary for Joe Biden. Barack Obama wisely chose Joe as his partner in the White House,” Kaine, the 2016 vice presidential nominee, said in a statement.
The Hill’s Scott Wong and Cristina Marcos report that centrist congressional Democrats supporting moderate presidential contenders are pushing back on Sanders’s argument that the candidate with the most delegates heading into the convention, even if it’s not a majority, should be the party’s nominee.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) revealed that he will no longer accept PAC money during a speech on Thursday at CPAC. “The PAC donation process — with its expectations of exchanging favors and time for money — renders public service, which should be among the nation’s most noble professions, dangerously close to the oldest profession,” Gaetz said.
PERSPECTIVES:
Paul Bledsoe: To winnow primary field, Obama and other leaders must speak out
Bradley A. Blakeman: No time for partisan politics around pandemic
Lou Cannon: Mike Bloomberg’s fuzzy math
Moira Donegan: Warren is not done yet
POLL WATCH:
Sanders: 29 percent
Biden: 20 percent
Bloomberg: 18 percent
Warren: 15 percent
Sanders: 35 percent
Warren: 14 percent
Biden: 13 percent
Bloomberg: 12 percent
Los Angeles Times-Berkeley IGS — CALIFORNIA
Sanders: 34 percent
Warren: 17 percent
Bloomberg: 12 percent
Buttigieg: 11 percent
Biden: 8 percent
Klobuchar: 6 percent
Sanders: 25 percent
Warren: 17 percent
Buttigieg: 14 percent
Bloomberg: 13 percent
Biden: 9 percent
MARQUETTE LAW SCHOOL — WISCONSIN
Sanders: 29 percent
Bloomberg: 17 percent
Biden: 15 percent
Buttigieg: 13 percent
Klobuchar: 11 percent
Warren: 9 percent
MAGELLAN STRATEGIES — COLORADO
Sanders: 27 percent
Warren: 15 points
Buttigieg: 12 percent
Biden: 11 percent
Bloomberg: 11 percent
Klobuchar: 6 percent
Steyer: 1 percent
Gabbard: 1 percent
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
There are 1 days until the South Carolina primary and 4 days until Super Tuesday.
ONE FUN THING:
PINT SIZED FAN: Former 2020 presidential contender and Warren supporter Julián Castro brought his young son, Cristián, along to a campaign event for the Massachusetts senator recently, and it looks like the younger Castro is all in for Warren!
The youngster smiled wide for the camera during Warren’s speech and enthusiastically clapped his hands.
Check out this video from Castro’s communications director, Sawyer Hackett:
I just want to take a minute to acknowledge this video I took of Cristián Castro enjoying @ewarren’s speech. pic.twitter.com/wfljkyBegW
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) February 28, 2020
“Could he be saying ‘it’s time for a wealth tax?'” Warren’s national Latinx outreach director Jonathan Jayes-Green, replied on Twitter to the video.
We don’t know about that, but it looks like Cristián is feeling pretty good ahead of South Carolina.
We’ll see you next week with a Super Tuesday preview!
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