It’s Super Tuesday Results Night 2020!
Polls are now closed in several states on the East Coast. Former Vice President Joe Biden is the projected winner in both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of North Carolina, while Bernie Sanders is projected to win his home state of Vermont. The projected Biden wins give him — for now — an overall delegate lead, though the night is still young and many other states are also holding nominating events, including California, where Sanders hopes to do well.
A week ago, the Biden campaign had not won a single state and was laser focused on trying to rebound in South Carolina, which it did, spectacularly.
Biden’s South Carolina win has completely changed the dynamics of the race. Within forty-eight hours of Biden’s convincing victory in the Palmetto State, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar decided to end their campaigns and make appearances alongside Biden in Dallas, Teas to award him their endorsements.
In the wake of his South Carolina victory, Biden also began receiving a torrent of endorsements from Democratic elected officials at every level (federal, state, and local) which his campaign has exuberantly touted.
Biden has also seemed more sure of himself at recent campaign appearances than in Iowa or New Hampshire, coming across as energetic and confident.
Democratic voters seem to be responding enthusiastically to these developments.
Results tabulated so far in Virginia suggest that Biden will win there, in line with media projections. If Biden wins the other states in the South that are voting today, and does reasonably well in Texas and California, he could emerge from Super Tuesday as the new Democratic frontrunner, overtaking Bernie Sanders.
If Biden goes on to win the nomination, he will be able to credit the Democratic voters of South Carolina with his success. They believed in him even after many pundits and prognosticators had written him off.
Some progressive activists have suggested on social media that Biden’s recent torrent of endorsements (including from former rivals Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Beto O’Rourke) are evidence that the “fix is in” for Biden.
That is utter nonsense. The reality is that Biden’s campaign was on the ropes before South Carolina. It had been losing credibility, it had been running low on funds, it had been trying to recover from early stumbles.
But Palmetto State Democratic voters — who outnumber the Democratic voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada — decided to back Biden. Enthusiastically. That’s what set in motion Biden’s comeback. Not a meeting of power brokers in a backroom in Washington, D.C., but a strong primary performance.
People are coalescing around Biden because that’s what happens after a candidate demonstrates they have broad-based support.
You might recall that South Carolina was also where Barack Obama secured his breakout win twelve years ago. Obama prevailed in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, went on to lose the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton, and then roared back in South Carolina. He went on to win a slew of states with February nominating events (including Washington’s Democratic caucuses!) and ultimately built a delegate lead that Hillary Clinton was unable to surmount.
You might also remember that Obama was endorsed by several of his rivals after they exited the race in 2008. Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, and John Edwards (in that order) all chose to back Obama after Obama demonstrated that he had broad-based support in early nominating contests.
Notably, they opted to give Obama their endorsements before Obama had locked up the nomination… while Clinton was still in the hunt.
That’s the same kind of coalescing we are seeing now. It’s to be expected. There is nothing nefarious about it whatsoever. It’s a free country — well, at least for now — and people get to support who they want. As the field shrinks, Bernie Sanders is also picking up key endorsements (like Democracy For America’s). Ditto for Elizabeth Warren (she was endorsed by EMILY’s List).
Although Biden has now demonstrated that he has broad-based support among Democratic voters in several key states, his campaign has a long way to go before it will be in a position to unify the Democratic Party and defeat the forces arrayed around Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Kevin McCarthy.
Inexplicably, the campaign has been openly contemptuous of progressive activists working to build a Democratic Party that is robust and healthy over the long term, as the Indivisible Team explained in a Medium post published yesterday:
On release, Vice President Biden was the only major candidate to score below 50% on our scorecard overall, and in each category.
It’s important to note that much of his policy scoring was built through research into his public plans and platform because Biden’s campaign was the only one that repeatedly refused to respond to Indivisible’s candidate questionnaire.
That’s right: even though he knew that Indivisible activists were eager to hear from him directly and that these same activists have been on the frontlines of the fight against the Trump administration, Vice President Biden didn’t think it was important to engage with this movement.
And after a little digging, it was easy to see that this choice is part of a pattern: his campaign is not built around progressive and people-powered movements. Instead, it relies heavily on big donors at private fundraisers while prioritizing faulty electability politics.
Less than 40% of his campaign fundraising comes from the grassroots, with the rest coming from bundlers and high-dollar donors. Vice President Biden also refuses to commit to a ban on appointing his high-dollar donors to lucrative ambassadorships.
Embracing big money and political favors is quite literally the opposite of grassroots democratic values.
The number one rule of politics is don’t alienate your base. Donald Trump understands this rule and adheres to it; as is evident, that has gotten him very far.
If the Biden campaign continues to commit campaign malpractice, as it has over the course of the past year, it will set itself up for failure, just as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign did. Biden’s advisers and strategists, and most importantly Biden himself, all need to commit to changing the culture and ethos of their campaign if they want to succeed in winning the November 2020 general election.
They can start by returning Indivisible’s candidate questionnaire and inviting grassroots progressive organizations to provide feedback to their campaign.
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020
Early Super Tuesday results look good for Joe Biden — can he keep the wins coming?
It’s Super Tuesday Results Night 2020!
Polls are now closed in several states on the East Coast. Former Vice President Joe Biden is the projected winner in both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of North Carolina, while Bernie Sanders is projected to win his home state of Vermont. The projected Biden wins give him — for now — an overall delegate lead, though the night is still young and many other states are also holding nominating events, including California, where Sanders hopes to do well.
A week ago, the Biden campaign had not won a single state and was laser focused on trying to rebound in South Carolina, which it did, spectacularly.
Biden’s South Carolina win has completely changed the dynamics of the race. Within forty-eight hours of Biden’s convincing victory in the Palmetto State, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar decided to end their campaigns and make appearances alongside Biden in Dallas, Teas to award him their endorsements.
In the wake of his South Carolina victory, Biden also began receiving a torrent of endorsements from Democratic elected officials at every level (federal, state, and local) which his campaign has exuberantly touted.
Biden has also seemed more sure of himself at recent campaign appearances than in Iowa or New Hampshire, coming across as energetic and confident.
Democratic voters seem to be responding enthusiastically to these developments.
Results tabulated so far in Virginia suggest that Biden will win there, in line with media projections. If Biden wins the other states in the South that are voting today, and does reasonably well in Texas and California, he could emerge from Super Tuesday as the new Democratic frontrunner, overtaking Bernie Sanders.
If Biden goes on to win the nomination, he will be able to credit the Democratic voters of South Carolina with his success. They believed in him even after many pundits and prognosticators had written him off.
Some progressive activists have suggested on social media that Biden’s recent torrent of endorsements (including from former rivals Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Beto O’Rourke) are evidence that the “fix is in” for Biden.
That is utter nonsense. The reality is that Biden’s campaign was on the ropes before South Carolina. It had been losing credibility, it had been running low on funds, it had been trying to recover from early stumbles.
But Palmetto State Democratic voters — who outnumber the Democratic voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada — decided to back Biden. Enthusiastically. That’s what set in motion Biden’s comeback. Not a meeting of power brokers in a backroom in Washington, D.C., but a strong primary performance.
People are coalescing around Biden because that’s what happens after a candidate demonstrates they have broad-based support.
You might recall that South Carolina was also where Barack Obama secured his breakout win twelve years ago. Obama prevailed in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, went on to lose the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton, and then roared back in South Carolina. He went on to win a slew of states with February nominating events (including Washington’s Democratic caucuses!) and ultimately built a delegate lead that Hillary Clinton was unable to surmount.
You might also remember that Obama was endorsed by several of his rivals after they exited the race in 2008. Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, and John Edwards (in that order) all chose to back Obama after Obama demonstrated that he had broad-based support in early nominating contests.
Notably, they opted to give Obama their endorsements before Obama had locked up the nomination… while Clinton was still in the hunt.
That’s the same kind of coalescing we are seeing now. It’s to be expected. There is nothing nefarious about it whatsoever. It’s a free country — well, at least for now — and people get to support who they want. As the field shrinks, Bernie Sanders is also picking up key endorsements (like Democracy For America’s). Ditto for Elizabeth Warren (she was endorsed by EMILY’s List).
Although Biden has now demonstrated that he has broad-based support among Democratic voters in several key states, his campaign has a long way to go before it will be in a position to unify the Democratic Party and defeat the forces arrayed around Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Kevin McCarthy.
Inexplicably, the campaign has been openly contemptuous of progressive activists working to build a Democratic Party that is robust and healthy over the long term, as the Indivisible Team explained in a Medium post published yesterday:
The number one rule of politics is don’t alienate your base. Donald Trump understands this rule and adheres to it; as is evident, that has gotten him very far.
If the Biden campaign continues to commit campaign malpractice, as it has over the course of the past year, it will set itself up for failure, just as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign did. Biden’s advisers and strategists, and most importantly Biden himself, all need to commit to changing the culture and ethos of their campaign if they want to succeed in winning the November 2020 general election.
They can start by returning Indivisible’s candidate questionnaire and inviting grassroots progressive organizations to provide feedback to their campaign.
# Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 6:11 PM
Categories: Elections
Tags: US-Pres
Comments and pings are currently closed.