The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden, Sanders face off on dramatic Super Tuesday

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. 

 

HAPPY SUPER TUESDAY: 

We’ve got a race. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden is surging in polls released today as voters head out to cast ballots in 14 states across the country.

About one-third of all the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination will be allocated today, and nobody knows how it will shake out between Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) after a head-spinning 72 hours since Biden won the primary in South Carolina.

Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have dropped out of the race and thrown their support behind Biden, who has attracted scores of endorsements from party leaders in the past few days, ranging from House members to influential former governors and senators.

The donations are flooding in for Biden as well; he raised more than $10 million in the 24 hours after winning in South Carolina.

Is it enough to help him match or surpass Sanders’s delegates haul on Tuesday night?

Sanders has been running a national campaign for weeks, holding rallies in California and Texas, the two biggest states to vote, and marching with thousands of supporters to turn in early ballots in both states.

Biden is outmanned in staff and volunteers. But the surge of momentum he’s received in the past 24 hours is undeniable and reflected in the polls.

Nationally, Biden surpassed Sanders in a new Morning Consult survey taken after Klobuchar and Buttigieg dropped out.

And a slew of new polls released Tuesday found Biden cutting into Sanders’s lead in California. It now looks like Texas could go either way.

The polls show Biden opening up big leads in Virginia and North Carolina, while locking down states such as Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.

Sanders should still do well in California, and he’s expected to win in Colorado, Utah, Maine and his home state of Vermont. But Minnesota suddenly looks much tighter, as does Massachusetts, where Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) badly needs to win her home state.

The FiveThirtyEight model views Biden and Sanders as likely winners in seven states apiece. Only one week ago, it appeared that Sanders might win 10 states or more, along with big victories in California and Texas.

But will former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg leave a mark on the race after plowing hundreds of millions into a national ad campaign? Will Warren and Bloomberg reach the 15 percent viability threshold in surprising places that keeps Biden or Sanders from running up the score? Does anyone drop out?

Stay with us all night as we sort through the returns on the most important day of the Democratic primary to date.

— Jonathan Easley

 

Super Tuesday poll closing times pic.twitter.com/Tw1uaRSnw5

— Bruce Mehlman (@bpmehlman) March 3, 2020

 

 

READ MORE: 

The Hill’s Jonathan Easley: Polls show big bounce for Biden ahead of Super Tuesday

The Hill’s Julia Manchester: 5 states to watch on Super Tuesday

The Hill’s Niall Stanage: What each candidate needs to do

The Hill’s Jonathan Easley: Sanders poised for big Super Tuesday

The Hill’s Max Greenwood: 5 things to watch on Super Tuesday

 

PERSPECTIVES:

Deb Gordon: How to vote like a pragmatic progressive.

Edward Burmila: A brokered convention would be an ugly act of self-sabotage

Jelani Cobb: Biden, black voters and the way forward for Democrats

Nellie Gorbea and Trey Grayson: Getting nonvoters to the poll

Jonathan Chait: Why endorsements will help Biden

Allison Hope: The historic significance of Buttigieg’s campaign

 

POLL WATCH:

MORNING CONSULT – NATIONAL

Biden: 36 percent (+8)

Sanders: 28 percent (-1)

Bloomberg: 19 percent (+2)

Warren: 14 percent (+3)

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

March 10:

-Idaho primaries

-Michigan primaries

-Mississippi primaries

-Missouri primaries

-North Dakota Democratic caucuses

-Washington State primaries

March 15:

-Eleventh Democratic presidential primary debate

March 17:

-Arizona Democratic primary

-Florida primaries

-Illinois primaries

-Ohio primaries

March 24:

-Georgia primaries

March 29:

-Puerto Rico Democratic primary

 

ONE FUN THING:

BETO AND BURGERS: After receiving a slew of endorsements from three of his former 2020 rivals on Monday, Biden capped off his good day at the famous Texas burger chain Whataburger with one of those three one-time rivals–former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas). 

The former vice president and former Texas congressman were joined by O’Rourke’s wife Amy at the burger joint in Dallas after O’Rourke formally endorsed Biden. 

 

Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden grabs a shake with Beto O’Rourke and his wife Amy at Whataburger near Cityplace in Dallas, late Monday March 2, 2020. O’Rourke endorsed Biden at a rally earlier in the evening. (Photo Michael Hamtil/The Dallas Morning News) pic.twitter.com/sj2H1xd5zH

— Michael Hamtil (@mhamtil) March 3, 2020

 

And yes, O’Rourke did stream the meal live on Facebook.

Biden was greeted warmly by customers and supporters at the Texas eatery, and even received a Beto t-shirt he promptly put on. 

 

Biden in a @BetoORourke t-shirt at Whataburger.

Amazing. pic.twitter.com/M1qHPf2Zkl

— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) March 3, 2020

 

“Put me in coach. I’m ready to play!” Biden said upon receiving the shirt. 

Biden and his wife, Jill, will be attending a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles tonight, and the question we’re all asking is, will he continue his burger streak with In-n-Out? 

We’ll see you tomorrow for a rundown of the Super Tuesday results!