Biden hopes S Carolina win could propel him to Super Tuesday

 Joe Biden is confident that he is poised for victory in Saturday's first-in--South primary, just weeks after his third presidential campaign left New Hampshire bly wounded and close to broke.

question is wher Biden is correct that a win in South Carolina would propel him toward a strong showing in Super Tuesday slate of 14 states days later. Biden's top rivals, Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg, have dwarfed him in organization and spending, and early voting h begun in many states, including delegate-rich California and Texas, before Biden’s campaign could reestablish its footing.

In Biden’s ideal, a South Carolina rebound would blunt momentum of Sanders, progressive favorite and national delegate leer who led voting in Iowa, New Hampshire and Neva, while gutting case for Bloomberg, a billionaire whose late entry to race last fall was almost entirely pegged on idea that Biden would collapse after losing Iowa and New Hampshire.

“If you send me out of South Carolina with a victory, re will be stopping us,” Biden declared earlier this week, after getting coveted endorsement of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, highest-ranking African American on Capitol Hill and most influential Democrat in South Carolina.

“We will win mination,” Biden continued. “We will win presidency. And most importantly, we will end fear that so many people in this country have of a second term for Donald Trump.”

If he’s right, it would validate argument Biden laid out from start: that he, a 77-year-old former vice president with deep ties across party, was only candidate positioned to build a coalition across a racially, ethnically and ideologically diverse party — and that such a path didn’t require winning in overwhelmingly white Iowa or Neva.

Just what that would look like over next few weeks, of course, is much more complicated, and Biden aides and supporters kw he’d be heavily dependent on favorable media reaction to South Carolina to amplify his mess, given his financial constraints.

“It’s such a tight turnaround to Super Tuesday,” said Steve Schale, who is running a super PAC supporting Biden.

By end of Super Tuesday, about 40% of Democrats' convention delegates will have been awarded. More than 600 of 1,991 required for mination are up in California and Texas alone.

Both Biden campaign and super PAC, Unite County, have lagged ir counterparts in fundraising and spending, even with Biden boasting that he mand his single-day best $1.2 million haul this week after a solid debate performance Tuesday.

Biden’s campaign anunced this week an vertising buy of “six figures” across eight of 14 Super Tuesday states – a paltry sum when considering amount of money it takes to reach millions of voters on airwaves and online. Unite Country has digital vertising in Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and rth Carolina.

As a comparison, a PAC aligned with Elizabeth Warren has said it will spend $9 million on Super Tuesday vertising, even as senator faces an uphill battle to win any statewide races or than her home state of Massachusetts. Bloomberg, meanwhile, has spent hundreds of millions on television vertising and paid organizers. Sanders has spent tens of millions on vertising and organizing. Biden has paid staff across Super Tuesday map, but after Iowa and New Hampshire, campaign tably moved dozens of organizers to beef up Neva and South Carolina, recognizing that y were make or break for Biden.

Biden’s vertising footprint overlaps considerably with his travel plans for compressed Super Tuesday blitz. From Saturday through Tuesday, Biden is scheduled for stops in Alabama, rth Carolina, Virginia, Texas and California.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hijosa said Bloomberg’s presence in state is ubiquitous. “I’ve never seen anything like it in Democratic presidential politics here,” he said. Of Sanders, who lost Texas to Clinton four year ago, Hijosa said he “has a following in Texas.”

But Hijosa said Biden has “a deep well of goodwill” among Texas Democrats, whom he described as “more moderate than some of early states.” But he said Biden’s relative absence from state, both candidate himself and airwaves, is ticeable. “We’ll see wher that matters,” Hijosa said.

situation is similar in Super Tuesday states like Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma – more moderate Democratic electorates but places where Biden has yet to make a dent and almost certainly would be dependent on a nationalized wave of support hinging off South Carolina.

At super PAC, Schale said a big South Carolina win for Biden almost certainly would induce major contributors to fill Unite Country’s coffers. But he said re’s simply t eugh time to turn that into Super Tuesday television vertising. “You can’t buy eugh points that quickly to move any numbers,” he said.

If a cash windfall materializes, Schale said, PAC could ramp up Super Tuesday digital plan it alrey has in place, but orwise would buy TV time in states with March 10 primaries. Schale ted that PAC was able to quickly d to its effort in South Carolina after Clyburn’s endorsements, targeting direct mail pieces and online vertising to African American voters.

Biden is attempting to replicate Clyburn’s reach with an avalanche of elected leers across Super Tuesday states, from white moderates like Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine to black and Lati members of Congress like Reps. G.K. Butterfield and Alma ams of rth Carolina and Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas.

campaign tes that many of black and Hispanic members represent districts with a high concentration of delegates, a d to possibility that minating fight could be a long one.

“Joe Biden has been re for us when we needed him,” Butterfield said, explaining his mess to his constituents in rth Carolina. “w we need his stey hand.”

Still, money crunch hampers Biden’s ability to reach voters who might just be tuning in. So even as he’s sharpened new arguments -- blasting Sanders for once opposing many Democratic-backed gun regulations or highlighting his relationship with President Barack Obama – he’s left to make case in campaign events, dependent on tritional media to circulate his arguments.

former vice president’s aides, meanwhile, argue that he is uniquely positioned to get maximum support with minimum paid media. re is some evidence to support ir optimism. Biden has been vastly outspent in South Carolina alrey by Sanders and ar billionaire, Tom Steyer. Schale ackwledged threat that two billionaires, Steyer in South Carolina and Bloomberg on Super Tuesday, help furr divide n-Sanders vote and open possibility that even a strengned Biden will watch Sanders pile up delegates despite getting where close to a majority of votes in many states.

“Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg are walking super PACs for Bernie Sanders,” Schale said. “But it’s a long game.”